DOCTOR   HUGUET 


A  NOVEL 


BY 
EDMUND  BOISGILBERT,  M.  D. 

(IGNATIUS  DONNELLY), 

Author  of   "ATLANTIS,"   "  RAGXAROK,"    "THE  GREAT  CRYPTOGRAM,' 
AND  "C/iiSAR's  COLUMN." 


"  Mere  puppets  they,  who  come  and  go, 
At  bidding  of  vast  formless  things, 
That  shift  the  scenery  to  and  fro, 

Flapping,  from  out  their  condor  wings, 
Invisible  woe." 

—  Edgar  A.   foe. 


CHICAGO: 

F.  J.  SCIIULTK  &  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS, 
298  DEARHORN  STREET. 


COPYRIGHT,     iSgi, 

P>Y  IGNATIUS  DONNKIJ.Y. 

All  rights  reserved. 


By    IGNATIUS    DONNELLY. 

CESAR'S  COLUMN:  A  Story  of  the  Twentieth 
Century.  121110.  Cloth,  $1.25.  Paper, 
SGC. 

Swedish  translation  of  above.  Cloth,  $1.25, 
Paper,  750.  German  and  Norwegian  trans 
lations  now  in  preparation. 

DOCTOR  HUGUET:  A  Novel.  121110.  Cloth, 
$1.25.  Paper,  500. 

RAGNAROK:  The  Age  of  Fire  and  Gravel. 
Illustrated.  Large  I2mo.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

THE  GREAT  CRYPTOGRAM:    Francis  Bacon's 
Cipher  in  the  So-called  Shakespeare  Plays. 
Illustrated.     8vo.     Cloth,  $2.50. 
Mailed  to  any  address  on  receipt  of  price. 

F.  J.  SCHULTE  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS, 
298  DEARBORN  ST.,  CHICAGO. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

I. — MYSELF 7 

II. — MARY  RUDDIMAN           .         .         .         .  n 

III. — "SEJANUS"     ......  20 

IV. — GROWING  TOGETHER       .         .         .         .  31 

V. — AMBITION       ......  34 

VI. — LAWYER  BURYHILL          ....  38 

VII. — ABIGAIL 46 

VIII. — THE  DEBATE          .         .         .         .         .  51 

IX. — THE  TEMPTATION  .  .70 

X. — THE  VISION             .....  83 

XL — THE  TRANSFORMATION            ...  88 

XII. — OUT  OF  DOORS       .....  93 

XIII. — THE  ARREST           .         .         .         .         .  97 

XIV. — DISCHARGED           .....  105 

XV. — AT  HOME       .         .         .         .         .         .  no 

XVI. — AN  INTERVIEW        .         .         .         .         .  121 

XVII. — THE  LADY  OF  MY  LOVE            .         .        |t  133 

XVIII. — HUNTED  TO  THE  DEATH          .         .         .  138 

XIX. — -IN  THE  COURT-ROOM  AGAIN                  .             .  153 

XX.— IN  JAIL 161 

XXI. — MY  FAITHFUL  FRIEND             .         .         .  173 

XXII.— A  VISIT 176 

XXIII. — "MOTHER  BINDELL'S"     .         .         .         .  179 

XXIV.— SHE  SEES  HIM 186 

XXV. — -FREE  AGAIN            .         .         .         .         .  194 

XXVI.— THE  SCENE  SHIFTS          ....  203 

XXVII. — I  FIND  MY  MISSION         ....  209 

5 


CONTENTS.  vi. 

XXVIII.— DOING  MY  WORK             ....  213 

XXIX. — PREACHING  AND  TEACHING     .         .         .  221 

XXX. — THE  CLOUDS  GATHERING        .         .         .  225 

XXXI. — DETECTIVE  WORK           ....  237 

XXXII. — CHARITY  JONES       .....  243 

XXXIII. — MY  LETTER  TO  THE  COLONEL          .         .  245 

XXXIV. — THE  COLONEL'S  HOUR  OF  TRIUMPH         .  247 

XXXV.— AIUGAIL  HAS  A  PROPOSAL        .         .         .  260 

XXXVI. — MY  MIDNIGHT  VISITORS          .         .         .  266 

XXXVII.— I  HEAR  BAD  NEWS         ....  275 

XXXVIII.— THE  PLOT  THICKENS      ....  280 

XXXIX. — FLAME  AND  DEATH         ....  282 

XL. — BORN  AGAIN 293 

XLI. — VENGEANCE             .....  296 

XLII. — MY  GREAT  SORROW         ....  303 

XLIII. — THE  END 309 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

A  NOVEL. 


CHAPTER    I. 

MYSELF. 

"  There's  one  at  the  gate. 
Ah,  marry,  what  is  he?" 

—  Twelfth  Night,  i.  v. 

{HAVE  made  up  my  mind  to  tell  the  whole  dread 
ful  story,  let  the  consequences  be  what  they  may. 
I  know  there  are  those,  among  my  friends,  who  will 
consider  it  a  species  of  degradation  for  me  to  make 
public  the  facts  which  will  appear  in  these  pages;  while 
there  are  others  who  will  urge  that  the  world  will  never 
believe  so  improbable  a  story  as  that  which  I  am  about 
to  tell.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  I  have  been  chosen, 
by  some  extra-mundane,  superhuman  intelligence,  out 
of  the  multitude  of  mankind,  and  subjected  to  a  terri 
ble  and  unparalleled  experience,  in  order  that  a  great 
lesson  may  be  taught  to  the  world;  and  that  it  is  a 
duty,  therefore,  which  I  owe  to  the  world,  and  which 
I  must  not  shrink  from  or  avoid,  to  make  known  all  the 
facts  of  that  experience,  at  whatever  cost  of  shame  or 
agony  to  myself.  Blessed  is  the  man  who  can  feel  that 
God  has  singled  him  out  from  among  his  fellows,  and 


8  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

that  the  divine  hand  has  shaped  his  destiny;  and  yet 
such  men  usually  bear  on  their  hearts  and  minds  a 
burden  of  life-long  woe.  Those  whom  God  so  honors 
he  agonizes. 

My   name  is    Doctor    Anthony    Huguet.       I   am   a 
native  of  South  Carolina,  and  have  lived  here,  in  this 

city   of  C ,   ever  since   I   was   born,  except  during 

the  years  I  was  abroad  and  in  the  North,  perfecting  my 
medical  education.  My  ancestors  were  French,  and 
among  the  first  Huguenot  settlers  in  this  State;  my 
grandfather  was  a  planter,  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  fortune  which  I  now  enjoy,  by  large  cotton  crops 
in  the  old  slave-days,  and  judicious  investments  of 
the  money  so  made  in  real  estate.  I  am  an  aristocrat 
of  the  aristocrats.  My  education  was  as  thorough  as 
wealth,  on  the  part  of  my  parents,  and  great  industry, 
on  my  own  part,  could  make  it.  I  have  been,  by  inher 
itance,  a  leader  in  the  best  society  in  my  State  and  city. 
My  house  and  grounds  are  the  admiration  of  all  who 
behold  them.  I  take  my  physical  constitution  and 
stature  from  my  French  ancestors.  I  have  never  ex 
ceeded  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  in  weight,  and  I 
am  five  feet  six  inches  in  height.  My  complexion  is 
fair.  In  disposition  I  am,  by  nature,  somewhat  reserved 
and  exclusive,  and  with  a  certain  degree  of  Jiantcnr  in 
manner.  My  tastes  are  refined  and  studious,  with  a 
strong  love  for  music  and  poetry.  I  have  but  little 
personal  ambition.  My  opinions,  naturally  enough, 
have  taken  color  from  my  surroundings.  I  have  been 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  9 

a  Democrat  in  politics,  and  a  strong  supporter  of  the 
South  on  all  national  questions. 

I  mention  these  facts  that  the  reader  may  form  some 
conception  of  the  person  with  whom  these  pages  will 
largely  deal.  Let  him  bring  before  his  mind's  eye  a 
small,  spare,  sinewy,  French-looking,  aristocratic  gen 
tleman,  of  thirty-five  years  of  age,  with  gold  spectacles 
and  heavy  mustache;  and  he  will  have  a  pretty  fair 
picture  of  what  I  was  when  the  misfortune  befell  me 
of  which  I  arn  about  to  speak. 

My  house  stands  on  one  of  the  most  beautiful 

avenues  in  C ;  it  was  built  more  than  one  hundred 

years  ago,  and  has  been  occupied  for  several  genera 
tions  by  my  ancestors.  The  furniture  is  a  history  in 
little,  as  it  were,  of  the  family:  each  article  has  a  story 
of  its  own  which  renders  it  all  the  more  dear  to  me; 
from  the  few  plain,  solid  pieces  brought  over  from 
France  by  the  founder  of  the  family,  down  through 
each  generation,  including  the  rich  additions  made  to 
it  by  my  dear  mother.  And  this  is  as  it  should  be. 
The  dwellings  of  the  "  new  rich  "  look  like  warehouses 
of  furniture-dealers:  all  is  spick  and  span  new,  until 
one  is  almost  tempted,  as  he  wanders  through  this 
resplendent  grandeur,  to  look  around  for  the  salesman 
and  inquire  the  price. 

Broad  verandas,  shadowy  and  social,  surround  the 
house,  in  the  Southern  style,  and  the  whole  is  framed  in 
a  semi-tropical  garden,  the  finest  in  the  city,  where  the 
very  trees  are  bowers  of  blossoms  in  their  season,  and 
every  bush  and  shrub  gives  out  to  the  warm  air  its 
gorgeous  tribute  of  flowers  and  perfume. 


IO  DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 

I  am  a  bachelor,  and  my  household  consists  simply 
of  servants  and  of  such  friends  as  may  from  time  to 
time  do  me  the  honor  to  visit  me.  My  income  is  so 
large  that  I  have  pretty  much  withdrawn  from  the 
practice  of  my  profession.  I  read  a  great  deal,  and  lead 
a  quiet,  pleasant,  happy  life. 

Little  did  I  think  that  upon  this  placid  existence 
would  be  suddenly  obtruded  the  most  extraordinary 
experience  that  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  man. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MARY    RUDDIMAN. 

"  In  maiden  meditation,  fancy  free." 

— Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  ii.  2. 

WHEN  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  has  plenty 
of  money  and  nothing  to  do,  he  naturally  drifts 
into  politics.  If  he  has  not  himself  any  predisposition 
in  that  direction,  he  will  be  sought  out  by  the  profes 
sional  politicians  and  forced  into  such  a  career  —  not,  it 
may  be,  from  any  admiration  of  his  talents,  for  he  may, 
perchance,  possess  none;  but  from  a  desire  to  get  their 
nands  into  his  "  barrel,"  as  it  is  called  in  the  vernacular 
of  the  day,  or  into  his  "  pocket,"  as  our  ancestors 
would  have  said.  The  advance  of  the  world  is  shown 
in  the  fact  that  the  "  pocket "  has  grown  into  a  "barrel.  " 
Civilization  enlarges  everything,  even  corruption. 

Being  rich  and  with  fair  abilities,  I  was  naturally 
sought  out  by  the  leaders  of  my  party  and  urged  to 
become  a  candidate  for  this  or  that  public  position. 
T '••>  all  these  suggestions  I  had  invariably  turned  a  deaf 
ear.  As  I  said  before,  I  have  no  ambition  to  shine, 
and  I  looked  upon  public  life  as  discredited,  if  not  dis 
honored,  by  the  kind  of  men  who  ruled  it.  It  appeared 
to  me  a;5  a  sordid  and  debased  struggle  of  little  creatures 
for  honors  that  faded  from  the  memories  of  men  almost 
as  soon  as  they  were  won.  Out  of  the  thousands  of 


I  2  DOCTOR  HUG UE  T. 

public  characters  who  have  taken  part  in  our  national 
life,  one  can  count  upon  the  fingers  of  his  two  hands 
the  list  of  those  statesmen  who  have  really  left  any 
impress  on  their  age;  while  a  still  smaller  number  will 
be  remembered  beyond  the  termination  of  the  century 
in  which  they  lived.  I  turned,  therefore,  from  the 
temptations  of  this  shallow  and  barren  life  to  the  quiet 
of  my  own  library,  and  communion  with  the  mighty 
souls  of  the  past  — 

"  Those  dead  but  sceptered  sovereigns  who  still  rule 
Our  spirits  from  their  urns" — 

as  one  might  turn  from  the  sprawling  and  con 
temptible  contentions  of  dogs  to  a  banquet  of  the  gods. 

But  a  change  had  come  over  me.  For  the  first  time 
in  my  life  I  was  in  love.  I  had  experienced  that  "  pull 
of  the  heart  "  which  drew  me  toward  a  fair  maiden; 
and  a  cold  and  critical  analysis  made  by  my  mind 
confirmed  the  wisdom  of  my  inherited  passion.  For 
love,  after  all,  is  simply  a  primal  instinct  imposed  on 
humanity  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  race.  We  are  all 
automata.  Civilized  man  submits  love  to  the  super 
vision  of  his  judgment,  and  there  can  be  no  permanent 
love  where  the  natural  physical  affinity  is  not  supple 
mented  by  the  approval  of  a  trained  and  cultured 
intelligence. 

Colonel  Ruddiman  lives  ten  miles  from  the  town 

of  C .  He  is  a  planter,  the  last  of  a  long  line  of 

planters,  old  settlers  in  this  section,  a  man  of  fine  mind 
and  education,  who  won  wounds  and  honor  in  com 
mand  of  a  South  Carolina  regiment  in  the  War  be- 


DOC  TOR  HUG  UET.  \  3 

twcen  the  States.  The  defeat  of  his  section  almost 
broke  his  heart,  and  he  returned  home,  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  to  find  his  negroes  free  and  his  plantation  laid 
waste  and  woefully  dilapidated.  He  possesses  none 
of  the  traits  of  a  business  man.  He  would  much 
rather  entertain  his  neighbors  than  make  money  off 
them.  He  has  scarcely  enough  selfishness  to  protect 
his  own  interests.  He  is  hospitable,  generous,  a  good 
liver,  and  fond  of  joviality  and  conviviality.  For  some 
years  after  his  return  from  the  war  he  had  all  he  could 
do  to  provide  a  bare  living  for  his  family.  But  he 
hunted  and  killed  his  own  hogs,  which  had  run  wild 
into  the  adjacent  forests  during  his  absence,  and 
raised  corn  enough  for  his  own  use. 

He  has  three  sons  and  one  daughter.  The  sons  are 
gallant,  high-spirited,  fast-riding  gentlemen,  like  their 
father;  fond  of  all  sorts  of  field  sports,  and  not  much 
given  to  study;  and  yet,  withal,  honorable,  intelligent 
men,  on  whose  faithfulness  one  might  at  any  time 
stake  his  life.  Hot  partisans  of  the  South,  and  wor 
shipers  of  the  memory  of  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson, 
they  at  the  same  time  are  men  of  just  and  kindly  views 
toward  the  people  of  the  North. 

The  philosophers  tell  us  there  is  "  a  law  of  variation  " 
in  nature,  whereby  its  sameness  and  uniformity  are 
broken  up,  and  new  species  or  varieties  are  created. 
If  it  were  not  so,  "  like  would  produce  like  "  to  the  end 
of  the  chapter,  and  the  dead-level  of  commonplace 
would  spread,  like  a  stagnant  ocean,  everywhere.  But 
by  that  "  law  of  variation  "  freaks  occur  everywhere; 


14  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

and  people  are  born  whose  pedigrees  will  be  searched 
in  vain  for  any  prelude  or  prophesy  of  their  coming. 

Mary  Ruddiman  was  a  freak.  True,  she  had  in 
herited  all  the  courage,  daring,  high-spirit  and  honorable 
impulses  of  her  parents  and  ancestors;  it  would  be 
impossible  for  her  to  commit  a  debased  or  degrading 
act.  But  she  was  something  that  none  of  her  predeces 
sors  had  ever  been.  There  were  plenty  of  intelligent 
Ruddimans;  but  Mary  was  the  first  of  her  race  that  was 
intellectual.  She  had  displayed,  from  childhood,  a 
ravenous  appetite  for  knowledge,  and  a  memory  that 
was  abnormal.  The  Colonel  possessed  a  good-sized 
library,  the  result  of  the  accumulations  of  several  gen 
erations;  and  an  odd  conglomeration  of  books  it  was  — 
romances,  histories,  narratives  of  travel,  religious  works 
and  scientific  treatises.  The  latter  were  a  generation 
or  two  old,  and  of  little  practical  value;  for  it  is  the  \ 
peculiar  and  distinguishing  characteristic  of  science  tha-t 
every  ten  or  twenty  years  its  conclusions  are  all 
reversed  and  set  aside,  as  ridiculous  absurdities,  and  a 
new  set,  brand-new,  adopted,  to  be  in  turn  cast  over 
board,  but  to  rule  with  pope-like  infallibility  while  they 
are  accepted.  Mary  devoured  everything  in  this  old 
library,  even  to  the  prosiest  sermons  of  forgotten  divines 
who  had  proved  conclusively,  to  their  delighted  con 
gregations,  that  all  the  human  family,  except  a  favored 
portion  of  their  own  little  segment  of  a  creed,  were 
hurrying,  at  railroad  speed,  to  everlasting  damnation. 

In  those  days,  before  my  own  terrible  experience,  there 
was,  to  me,  something  dreadful  about  that  old  theology. 
Its  advocates  conceived  of  God  as  a  cruel  monster, 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  15 

waiting  on  the  other  side  of  the  fence  of  life  for  the 
trembling  and  cowering  soul  of  the  dead  man  to  pass 
through  the  rails,  that  He  might  pounce  upon  it  and 
plunge  it,  howling  and  shrieking,  into  everlasting  flame. 
It  never  seemed  to  have  occurred  to  them  to  ask  why 
Omnipotence  had  to  stay  on  the  other  side  of  the  fence  — 
why  He  did  not  invade  the  domain  of  life  and  roast 
and  burn  the  sinners  before  our  very  eyes.  But  they 
held  rigidly  to  this  horrible  belief,  in  the  face  of  a  thou 
sand  facts  which  testify  to  the  benevolence  of  the 
all-merciful  Father,  and  the  adaptation  of  His  creation, 
in  a  million  details,  to  the  comfort  and  happiness  of 
His  creatures. 

But  an  old  library  is,  indeed,  a  sad  object  to  con 
template.  It  represents  so  much  of  abandoned  errors 
and  disappointed  ambitions,  that  to  examine  its  shelves 
is  very  much  like  walking  through  an  old  church-yard. 
And  what  can  be  sadder  than  to  look  upon  the  graves 
of  the  dead  and  consider  that  houses,  lands,  furniture, 
goods,  gold,  silver,  horses,  cattle,  books,  grief,  merri 
ment,  love,  hate,  are  all  taken  away  from  the  departed, 
and  they  are  all  brought  down  to  a  little,  ghastly,  erect 
stone,  and  a  memory  that  grows  fainter  and  fainter 
every  day,  and  at  last  disappears  utterly  in  the  awful 
abyss  of  universal  oblivion. 

Thus  an  old  library  is  a  sort  of  intellectual  grave 
yard:  we  find  in  it  hundreds  of  forgotten  books  by 
forgotten  men,  who  sought  to  drag  a  fragment  of 
remembrance  out  of  the  black  waters  of  Lethe,  and 
fondly  hoped  that  their  works  would  live  and  occupy  the 
minds  of  mankind  for  many  generations.  How  mar- 


I  6  DOC  TOR  HUG  LIE  T. 

velously  the  living  creature  shrinks  from  annihilation! 
And  yet  Time  will  obliterate  the  memory  even  of 
Homer.  That  universal  maw  spares  nothing  that  is  or 
was. 

"  Time  hath,  my  lord,  a  wallet  at  his  back, 
Wherein  he  puts  alms  for  oblivion; 
A  great-sized  monster  of  ingratitudes: 
Those  scraps  are  good  deeds  past,  which  are  devoured 
As  fast  as  they  are  made,  forgot  as  soon 
As  done." 

But,  as  the  bee  finds  its  honey  in  almost  every  flower, 
so  the  eager  mind  of  Mary  Ruddiman  extracted  nourish 
ment  from  all  the  dead  and  dusty  tomes  of  her  father's 
library.  While  her  brothers  were  hunting  and  fishing 
or  horse -racing,  she  was  seated  on  the  porch,  or  in  a 
window  recess  of  the  library,  in  the  ancient  stone  house, 
poring,  with  bent  head,  diligently,  over  her  precious 
volumes.  She  grew  up  a  tall,  angular,  shy  girl,  with 
fine  dark  eyes,  and  an  awkward  and  constrained  man 
ner.  As  such  I  remembered  meeting  her  some  years 
before  the  date  of  this  story;  and  I  remember,  too, 
that  I  scarcely  gave  her  a  second  glance. 

But  the  negroes  had  come  back  to  work  —  they  had 
to  work  or  starve;  and,  like  white  men,  they  would 
rather  work  than  starve;  and,  like  the  average  white 
man,  nothing  could  make  them  work  but  the  fear  that 
they  would  starve.  And  the  Colonel  received  a  share 
of  the  crop;  and  the  store-keeper  and  the  usurer  got 
nearly  all  that  was  left,  except  enough  *hog  and  hom 
iny  to  keep  the  ebony  machine  in  operation,  and  enough 
cheap  goods  to  cover  its  nakedness.  And  so  the 
Colonel  prospered  again,  to  some  extent,  and  Mary 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  \J 

was  sent  to  an  academy  in  C ,  there  to  be  finished 

off  and  polished  up,  after  the  manner  of  all  eligible 
young  ladies  of  good  families. 

Now,  it  so  happened  that  Miss  McGlynn's  academy 
occupied  the  next  house  to  my  own;  and  I  knew  her 
very  well,  and  she  stood  very  high  in  my  estimation. 
She  was  a  tall,  spare,  spectacled  maiden,  of  fifty-odd 
summers;  an  intelligent,  kindly-hearted,  good  woman. 
She  had  three  sisters,  all  unmarried,  like  herself,  who 
had  charge  of  different  studies  in  the  academy,  while 
Miss  McGlynn  looked  after  the  business  management 
of  that  flourishing  institution.  Her  sisters  were  shorter 
and  stouter  than  herself;  cheerful,  dapper,  kindly  little 
women.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  a  reflection  on  the 
good  sense  of  the  male  sex  that  so  many  of  the  very 
best  of  the  other  division  of  mankind,  of  each  genera 
tion,  are  left  unwedded,  while  a  weak  and  silly  creature 
may  be  encumbered  with  suitors  and  bury  three  or  four 
husbands.  I  suppose  the  average  man  is  not  willing  to 
marry  a  woman  he  "  must  look  up  to."  He  would 
rather  sit  on  the  pedestal  himself,  and  be  worshiped 
by  shallowness,  than  to'kneel  at  the  feet  of  the  noblest 
creature  God  ever  made.  And  thus  the  best  of  the 
race  cease  to  be  mothers,  and  humanity  is  'so  much 
the  worse  off  thereby. 

One  day  Miss  McGlynn  came  in  to  see  me,  and,  with 
many  apologies  and  hesitations,  said  she  had  a  strange 
request  to  prefer.  She  had  a  pupil  who  was  an  exceed 
ingly  bright  young  lady,  and  a  great  reader.  She  had 
gone  through  every  book  in  the  limited  library  of  the 
academy,  and  was  now  ranging  up  and  down,  seeking 


1 8  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

something  to  devour.  The  poor  girl  was  really  un 
happy  for  want  of  mental  food;  and  it  had  occurred 
to  one  of  her  (Miss  McGlynn's)  sisters,  that  if  I  would 
be  kind  enough  to  lend  her  some  works  out  of  my 
large  library,  it  would  be  a  kindness  to  them  and  a  real 
charity  to  the  pupil.  I,  of  course,  replied  that  I  would 
be  very  glad  to  do  so,  and  I  asked  the  young  lady's 
name.  Miss  McGlynn  replied  that  it  was  Mary  Rud- 
diman. 

"  What,"  I  said,  "the  daughter  of  my  old  friend, 
Colonel  Ruddiman?" 

"  The  same,"  she  replied. 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "I  am  really  obliged  to  you  for  pre 
ferring  the  request.  I  have  met  Miss  Ruddiman.  I 
did  not  know  she  was  in  your  academy,  or  I  should 
have  called  and  paid  my  respects  to  her  ere  this.  I  will 
lose  no  time  in  doing  so  now." 

I  escorted  Miss  McGlynn  back  to  herown  house.  In 
a  few  moments  Miss  Ruddiman  made  her  appearance 
in  the  reception-room.  I  was  surprised  to  find  her 
greatly  changed.  Instead  of  the  angular,  awkward  girl 
I  had  seen  at  her  father's  house,  there  came  to  me  a 
tall,  graceful,  beautiful  woman,  with  all  those  rounded 
outlines  and  subtle  charms  which  cunning  Nature  con 
fers  upon  the  other  sex  for  the  enhancement  of  man. 
Her  manner,  while  self-possessed,  was  modest  and 
retiring;  but  intelligence  beamed  from  every  line  of  her 
fine  face;  and  her  eyes  had  the  bright  glow  of  youth 
and  the  strength  of  energy  in  them. 

I  took  her  hand  and  welcomed  her  to  C ;  I  spoke 

of  her  father  and  family,  and  concluded  by  assuring  her 


DOC  TO  K  HUGUET.  |  g 

that  every  book  in  my  house,  and  the  owner  of  them, 
for  that  matter,  was  at  her  service,  and  I  begged  her  to 
make  my  library  her  own;  that  she  would  find  it  a  quieter 
place  to  read  and  study  than  the  noisy  academy,  with 
its  drumming  pianos  and  turbulent  voices. 

She  thanked  me  cordially  and  promised  to  accept  my 
invitation.  After  some  further  conversation  I  took  my 
departure,  pleased  at  having  been  able  to  render  a 
civility  to  the  daughter  of  my  old  friend  Colonel 
Ruddiman. 


CHAPTER  III. 

"  SEJANUS." 

"  I,  thus  neglecting  worldly  ends,  all  dedicated 
To  closeness  and  the  bettering  of  my  mind." 

—  Tempest,  i.  2. 

BUSINESS  of  importance  called  me  out  of  town  for 
a  day  or  two.  On  my  return  I  went  straight  to 
my  library.  Ben  —  my  negro  "  boy,"  a  man  of  twenty- 
five,  grandson  of  one  of  my  father's  former  slaves,  very 
black  physically  and  quite  bright  mentally  —  met  me  at 
the  door.  He  pointed  significantly  with  his  thumb  over 
his  shoulder,  and  whispered: 

"  Miss  Mary  dar.  Bin  here  most  of  the  time  since 
you's  gone." 

It  took  me  a  few  seconds  to  remember  who  "  Miss 
Mary"  was.  I  looked,  and  there,  in  an  easy  chair,  near 
a  window,  with  her  back  to  the  light,  and  her  head 
bent  over  a  book,  I  saw  a  slim,  graceful  figure,  utterly 
absorbed  in  her  occupation,  and  unconscious  of  the 
presence  of  Ben  or  myself.  I  stepped  forward. 

"  Miss  Ruddiman,"  I  said,  "  I  am  delighted  to  see 
that  you  have  availed  yourself  of  my  invitation.  You 
are  most  welcome  —  for  your  father's  sake  as  well  as 
your  own." 

She  blushed  and  said  something  about  her  "  in 
trusion,"  and  explained  that  she  was  afraid  to  take  val- 


DO C TOR  HUG  UE  T.  2  I 

uable  books  into  the  academy,  lest  they  should  be  in 
jured  by  her  careless  fellow-students. 

I  assured  her  that  there  was  no  "  intrusion"  whatever; 
that  I  was  only  too  glad  to  have  her  visit  me;  that  she 
must  make  herself  perfectly  at  home,  and  that  we 
would  not  interfere  with  each  other's  pursuits  in  the 
least.  I  begged  her  to  go  on  with  her  reading,  and  that, 
if  she  would  excuse  me  for  a  few  moments,  I  would 
write  a  letter  to  a  friend  upon  a  matter  of  some 
urgency. 

I  took  my  seat  at  the  table  to  write,  and  Miss 
Mary  was  soon  again  buried  in  her  book. 

There  is  something  peculiar  in  the  sensations  which 
are  experienced  by  a  bachelor  when  he  finds  himself, 
for  the  first  time,  under  'the  same  roof — his  own  roof 
—  with  a  beautiful  young  girl.  And  so  my  pen 
stopped  its  monotonous  scratching,  and,  as  I  looked 
over  at  the  shapely,  stooped  head,  I  fell  into  medita 
tion. 

What  a  strange  fancy  for  one  so  young  and  fair  to  be 
such  a  book- worm?  Was  it  an  affectation?  No,  for 
I  had  heard  that,  even  as  a  child,  she  had  been  a  dili 
gent  reader.  But  did  her  reading  profit  her  any?  As 
a  physician  I  knew  there  were  diseased  conditions  of 
the  system  when  the  patient  consumed  very  large  quan 
tities  of  food,  and  remained  thin  and  sickly  in  spite  of 
it  all,  or  perhaps  because  of  it  all.  The  appetite  was 
insatiable,  but  there  was  no  assimilation  of  that  which 
was  absorbed.  So  there  were  minds  that  read,  and 
read,  and  read,  and  profited  nothing.  A  mass  of  infor 
mation  swept  over  the  surface  of  the  brain,  but  nothing 


22  DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 

stuck.  There  are  novel-readers  of  this  kind,  who  can 
remember  not  one  thing  of  or  about  the  romance  they 
read  a  month  ago;  who  can  scarcely  keep  in  their  recol 
lection  the  names  of  the  characters  of  the  novels  which 
they  are  perusing.  Was  Miss  Mary  one  of  these?  In 
deed,  as  a  bachelor,  —  coming  in  contact  with  so  many 
shallow  creatures  in  every-day  life,  chattering,  gig 
gling  ninnies,  —  I  held  the  female  mind  in  a  kind 
of  contempt.  I  looked  upon  the  whole  sex  as  pleasant 
creatures,  whose  function  it  was,  in  the  economy  of 
Nature,  to  keep  the  male  part  of  humanity  from  dying 
out — a  kind  of  agreeable,  necessary  evil  for  the  main 
tenance  of  a  race  of  men.  And  so  I  said  to  myself,  I 
will  have  some  amusement  sounding  the  shallow  depths 
of  this  young  girl's  mind. 

"  Pardon  me  for  interrupting  you,  Miss  Mary,"  I 
said,  "  but  you  seem  to  be  very  fond  of  reading." 

"  Yes,"  she  replied,  "  I  am,  indeed,  very  fond  of 
books.  Indeed  it  is  a  passion  with  me." 

"  Why,  may  I  ask?"  I  inquired. 

"  A  good  library,"  she  answered,  "  seems  to  me  to 
be  a  collection  of  the  great  personages  of  all  ages,  — 
that  is,  of  their  minds,  — and  the  mind  is,  after  all,  the 
better  part,  the  only  enduring  part,  of  the  individual." 

I  was  struck  with  astonishment  at  this  reply,  uttered, 
seemingly,  without  any  consciousness  of  its  pith  or 
point.  She  continued: 

"  In  every  generation  there  are,  it  seems  to  me,  but 
a  few  great  souls,  and  one  may  go  through  life  without 
meeting  with  a  single  one  of  them.  It  has  never  been 
my  good  fortune  to  encounter  any  person  who  stood 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  23 

much  above  his  fellows.  But  here,  in  this  library,  are 
all  the  great  souls  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  modern 
Europe  and  America,  down  to  the  present  day.  It  is 
as  if  they  sat  around  this  table,  ready  to  talk  to  me; 
ready  to  give  me  their  choicest  and  most  select  thoughts 
—  the  distilled  wisdom  of  their  lives.  I  can't  help  but 
think  how  many  millions  of  boobies  and  envious  de 
tractors  time  has  swept  away  into  oblivion,  while  it  has 
left  this  galaxy  of  greatness  undisturbed.  It  is  the 
privilege  of  genius  to  survive  whole  generations  of 
malighers.  The  conflagration  of  time,  which  consumes 
the  mean,  illumines  the  great." 

I  listened  with  increasing  astonishment.  This  was  no 
dyspeptic  of  the  mind;  this  was  a  tJiinker.  So  young, 
so  fair,  and  yet  so  wise!  Where  did  this  mind  come 
from?  Colonel  Ruddiman  and  his  ancestors  never 
thought  such  thoughts  as  these.  How  did  this  young 
philosopher  spring  out  of  such  a  generation  of  fox- 
hunters  and  warriors?  Like  does  not,  then,  always  pro 
duce  like.  If  it  did,  there  would  be  absolute  uniformity 
among  all  human  beings;  and  there  is  absolute  non- 
uniformity.  Neither  were  these  sentences  uttered  in  a 
pretentious  or  pedantic  manner.  Though  oracular  in 
their  nature,  they  came  from  her  lips  modestly  and 
hesitatingly,  as  if  she  feared  to  put  her  thoughts  into 
words;  as  if  she  did  not  realize  their  merit. 

I  grew  interested.      I  stopped  my  letter. 

I  drew  my  chair  nearer  to  her. 

"  May  I  ask,"  I  said,  "  what  work  you  are  reading?" 
Certainly,"  she  replied;  "  I  am  reading,  for  the 
third  time,  Ben  Jonson's  Sejanus," 


04  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

"  Indeed,"  I  said,  "  that  is  rather  an  out-of-the-way 
and  neglected  book,  nowadays.  The  world  goes 
wild  over  Jonson's  great  contemporary,  Shakespeare, — 
in  fact,  he  is  the  rage  and  the  fashion,  —  but  it 
gives  little  attention  to  '  rare  Ben,'  his  fellow  actor  and 
playwright." 

"  True,"  she  replied,  "  and  yet  there  are  many  pass 
ages  in  his  poetry  that  sound  as  if  they  had  been 
written  by  the  pen  of  Shakespeare  himself,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  his  prose  writings,  especially  his  Dis 
coveries,  there  are  sentences  that  have  all  the  depth 
and  profoundness,  the  pith  and  point,  and  even  the  very 
color,  of  Bacon's  compositions." 

"  Indeed,"  I  said,  more  and  more  astonished  with 
this  school-girl.  "  Have  you  read  Bacon's  works?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  she  said,  and  she  smiled  with  enthusiasm; 
"  they  have  been  my  daily  study  for  years.  I  found  an 
old  edition  in  my  father's  library  and  devoured  it  years 
ago.  I  brought  it  with  me  to  the  school.  I  have 
made  more  than  a  hundred  pages  of  annotations  upon 
it." 

"  To  publish?  "  I  inquired. 

"  Oh,  no,"  she  said,  with  a  slight  blush;  "  I  never 
thought  of  anything  of  that  kind.  I  made  them  simply 
for  my  own  instruction  and  pleasure." 

No  wonder,  I  said  to  myself,  that  the  great  phi 
losopher  of  Verulam  said  that  his  thoughts  would  fall, 
like  seeds,  in  the  minds  of  those,  of  future  generations, 
who  were  fitted  to  receive  them!  Here  was  this 
American  girl,  brought  up  upon  a  solitary  plantation, 
who  eagerly  sought  out  that  which  generations  of  her 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  2$ 

ancestors  had  neglected  to  notice;  which  they  had 
been,  indeed,  incapable  of  understanding. 

"  I  had  not  supposed,"  I  said,  wishing  to  draw  her 
out  still  farther,  "  that  there  was  any  resemblance  be 
tween  Ben  Jonson's  prose  and  Lord  Bacon's  writings." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  she  said,  eagerly,  "  listen  to  this: 

"  'Language  most  shows  a  man.  Speak  that  I  may 
see  thee.  It  springs  out  of  the  most  retired  and  inward 
parts  of  us,  and  is  the  image  of  the  mind.  No  glass  ren 
ders  a  man's  form  or  likeness  so  true  as  his  speech.' 

"  And  this,"  she  continued: 

"  'A  fool  may  talk,  but  a  wise  man  speaks.  ...  It 
is  easier  to  do  many  things  and  continue,  than  to  do 
one  thing  long.  .  .  .  As  when  a  man  is  weary  of  writ 
ing,  to  read;  and  then  again  of  reading,  to  write.  .  .  . 
Though  ambition  itself  be  a  vice,  it  is  often  the  cause 
of  great  virtue.  .  .  Let  them  look  over  all  the  great 
and  monstrous  wickedness;  they  shall  never  find  those 
in  poor  families.  They  are  the  issue  of  the  wealthy 
giants  and  the  mighty  hunters:  whereas  no  great  work, 
or  zvorthy  of  praise  or  memory,  but  came  out -of  poor 
cradles.  ...  I  have  considered  our  whole  life  is  like 
a  play:  wherein  every  man,  forgetful  of  himself,  is 
in  travail  with  expression  of  another.  .  .  .  Placed 
high  on  the  top  of  all  virtue,  they  looked  down  on  the 
Stage  of  the  World,  and  contemned  the  Play  of  For 
tune.  For,  though  the  most  be  players,  some  must  be 
spectators.' ' 

"  Really,"  said  I,  "  you  astonish  me.  Are  you  read 
ing  from  Ben  Jonson?  Why,  the  sentences  have  all 
the  pith,  condensation  and  wisdom  of  Bacon.  And 
how  curiously  that  last  sentence  agrees  with  the  rhymes 


26  DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 

that  have  come  down  to  us  by  tradition;  where  Shake 
speare  was  asked,  in  reference  to  the  expression,  'All 
the  world's  a  stage,  and  all  the  men  and  women  merely 
players,' 

" '  If  but  stage  acting  all  the  world  displays. 

Where  shall  we  find  spectators  for  our  plays  ? ' 

"  And  the  answer  given: 

"  '  But  little  of  the  much  we  see  we  do; 
We  are  both  actors  and  spectators  too.' 

"  That,"  said  I,  "  is  the  very  thought  you  have  just 
read;  'the  stage  of  the  world, — the  play  of  fortune, — 
for,  though  the  most  be  players,  some  must  be  specta 
tors.'  It  is  all  very  strange.  You  give  me  a  new  in 
terest  in  Ben  Jonson's  writings." 

"Indeed!"  she  replied;  "I  am  astonished  that  an 
intelligent  age  has  paid  so  little  attention  to  them. 
The  Discoveries  alone  is  a  mine  of  profound  and 
original  thought." 

"  You  have  spoken  of  passages  that  have  reminded 
you  of  the  pen  of  Shakespeare.  Can  you  give  me  any 
instances?  I  have  supposed  Jonson  to  be  rather  a 
tame  and  prosy  poet,  distinguished  more  by  learning 
than  genius;  that,  at  least,  is  the  common  verdict  of 
our  modern  critics." 

"  It  is  altogether  an  error,"  she  replied;  "  take  these 
verses,  for  instance,  from  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humor, 
the  very  opening  of  the  play: 

"  '  Who  is  so  patient  of  this  impious  world 
That  he  can  check  his  spirit,  or  rein  his  tongue  ? 
Or  who  hath  such  a  dead,  unfeeling  sense, 
That  heaven's  horrid  thunders  cannot  wake? 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  * 27 

To  sec  the  earth  cracked  with  the  weight  of  sin, 
Hell  gaping  under  us,  and  o'er  our  heads 
Black,  ravenous  ruin,  with  her  sail-stretched  wings, 
Ready  to  sink  us  down,  and  cover  us.'  " 

"  That  is  a  grand  figure  of  speech,"  I  said.  "  '  Black, 
ravenous  ruin,  with  her  sail-stretched  wings.'  There 
is  surely  imagination  enough  in  that." 

"  Yes,"  she  said,  eagerly;  "  listen  to  this  picture  of 
Sejanus'  exultation: 

"  '  Great  and  high 

The  world  knows  only  two,  that's  Rome  and  I. 
My  roof  receives  me  not;  'tis  air  I  tread; 
And  at  each  step  I  freel  my  advanced  head 
Knock  out  a  star  in  heaven.      Reared  to  this  height, 
All  my  desires  seem  modest,  poor  and  slight, 
That  did  before  sound  impudent.   'Tis  place, 
Not  blood,  discerns  the  noble  and  the  base.  ' 

"  Is  that  in  Ben  Jonson?"  I  said.  "  You  astonish  me. 
Its  splendid  extravagance  reminds  me  of  some  lines  in 
Henry  V.  — ah,  here  they  are: 

:<  '  I  will  not  change  my  horse  with  any  that  treads 
but  on  four  pasterns,  ca,  ha!  He  bounds  from  the 
earth  as  if  his  entrails  were  hairs;  le  cheval  volant,  the 
Pegasus,  qui  a  Ics  narines  dc  fen!  When  I  bestride 
him  I  soar,  I  am  a  hawk;  he  trots  the  air;  the  earth 
sings  ivhen  he  touches  it:  the  basest  horn  of  his  hoof  is 
more  musical  than  the  pipe  of  Hermes."' 

"  Splendid  !"  she  cried,  enthusiastically;  "  it  is  grand; 
it  is  the  same  magnificent  daring  of  gorgeous  metaphor. 
The  very  words  are  the  same  !  '  'Tis  air  I  tread;'  'he 
trots  the  air.' 


28*  DOCTOR  HUCUET. 

"  And  what  a  grand  adjuration,"  she  continued,  "  is 
this,  put  into  the  mouth  of  Arruntius: 

"  '  Still  dost  thou  suffer,  Heaven!   Will  no  flame, 
No  heat  of  sin,  make  thy  just  wrath  to  boil, 
In  thy  distempered  bosom,  and  o'erflow 
The  pitchy  blazes  of  impiety 

Kindled  beneath  thy  throne?  Still  canst  thou  sleep, 
•Patient,  while  vice  doth  make  an  antick  face 
At  thy  dread  power,  and  blow  dust  and  smoke 
Into  thy  nostrils  !   Jove,  will  nothing  wake  thee  ? 
Must  vile  Sejanus  pull  thee  by  the  beard, 
Ere  thou  wilt  open  thy  black-lidded  eye 
And  look  him  dead  ?     Well,  snore  on,  dreaming  gods ; 
And  let  this  last  of  that  proud  giant-race 
Heave  mountain  upon  mountain  'gainst  your  state.'  " 

"  And  you  really  think  Sejanus  is  a  great  produc 
tion?  "  I  asked. 

"  Magnificent,"  she  replied;  "  in  its  description  of  the 
corrupt  life  of  the  Empire  it  is  terrible!  It  represents 
a  most  dreadful  contrast  between  Sejanus  entering  the 
Temple  of  Apollo,  with  the  senators  cringing  most 
servilely  before  him,  paying  him  the  adoration  due  a 
god;  and  the  same  Sejanus,  after  the  Emperor's  letter 
has  been  read,  and  he  falls  never  to  rise  again,  torn  to 
pieces  by  the  very  mob  that  was  just  howling  his 
praises.  And  how,  like  a  running  commentary  from 
our  own  thoughts,  come  in  the  utterances  of  the 
honest  but  sarcastic  Arruntius.  As  he  looks  upon  the 
servile  courtiers  cringing  around  Sejanus,  he  says: 

"  '  Gods !  how  the  sponges  open  and  take  in, 
And  shut  again  !  Look!  Look!  Is  not  he  blest 
That  gets  a  seat  in  eye-reach  of  him  ?     More 
That  comes  in  ear  or  tongue-reach  ?     Oh,  but  most 
Can  claw  his  subtle  elbow,  or  with  a  buz 
Fly-blow  hif  ears. '     ,     .     , 


DOCTOR  HUG  VET.  2  9 

" '  See,  see!   What  troops  of  his  officious  friends 
Flock  to  salute  my  lord,  and  start  before 
My  great  proud  lord  !   to  get  a  lord-like  nod  ! 
Attend  my  lord  unto  the  senate-house  ! 
,        Bring  back  my  lord  !  like  servile  ushers,  make 
Way  for  my  lord  !    Proclaim  his  idol  lordship 
More  than  ten  criers,  or  six  noise  of  trumpets ! 
Make  legs,  kiss  hands,  and  take  a  scattered  hair 
From  my  lord's  eminent  shoulder  /'  " 

"  What  observation,"  I  said,  "  is  revealed  in  that  last 
touch  !  It  brings  the  picture  distinctly  before  the 
mind's  eye.  Read  on.  " 

"  And  then,"  she  continued,  "  listen  to  this  dreadful 
picture  of  the  doom  of  the  fallen  favorite  an  hour 
afterward: 

"  '  Sentenced  by  the  senate 

To  lose  his  head;  which  was  no  sooner  off, 

But  that  and  the  unfortunate  trunk  were  seized 

By  the  rude  multitude;  who,  not  content 

With  what  the  froward  justice  of  the  state 

Officiously  had  done,  with  violent  rage 

Have  rent  it  limb  from  limb.     A  thousand  heads, 

A  thousand  hands,  ten  thousand  tongues  and  voices, 

Employed  at  cnce  in  several  acts  of  malice ! 

Old  men  not  staid  with  age,  virgins  with  shame, 

Late  wives  with  loss  of  husbands,  mothers  of  children, 

Losing  all  grief  in  joy  of  his  sad  fall, 

Run  quite  transported  with  their  cruelty  ! 

These  mounting  at  his  head,  these  at  his  face, 

These  digging  out  his  eyes,  those  with  his  brains 

Sprinkling  themselves,  their  houses  and  their  friends; 

Others  are  met,  have  ravished  thence  an  arm, 

And  deal  small  pieces  of  the  flesh  for  favors. 

The  whole  and  all  of  what  was  great  Sejanus, 

And,  next  to  Caesar,  did  possess  the  world, 

Now  torn  and  scattered,  as  he  needs  no  grave; 

Each  little  dust  covers  a  little  part: 

So  lies  he  nowhere  and  yet  often  buried.'  " 


3Q  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

\J 

"What  a  dreadful  picture!"  I  exclaimed.  "I  can 
recall  nothing  in  literature  equal  to  this  violent  contrast 
between  the  base  servility  of  mankind  and  its  horrible 
cruelty;  and  the  worst  of  it  is  that  the  story  is  historically 
true.  One  is  tempted  to  cry  out  against  human  nature 
for  this  worse  than  beast-like  baseness." 

"  Oh!"  she  replied,  "  the  whole  play  is  wonderful. 
The  minute,  accurate  knowledge  which  it  reveals  of 
the  daily,  familiar  life  of  the  Roman  people  of  that  age 
is  only  equaled  by  its  loathing  of  the  infamy  of  man 
kind.  It  seems  to  have  been  written  by  one  who  had 
suffered  great  wrongs,  and  was  embittered  against  his 
kind." 

From  this  our  conversation  flowed  on  to  the  other 
great  writers  of  that  wonderful  Elizabethan  age;  an  age 
when  men's  minds  seemed  to  have  been  broader,  and 
their  thoughts  more  intense  than  they  were  in  any  suc 
ceeding  generation;  and  I  was  astonished  to  find  that 
this  school-girl  was  familiar  with  them  all:  Shakespeare, 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Massinger,  Spenser,  Marlowe, 
and  all  the  rest.  She  seemed  to  have  read  everything, 
and  to  have  remembered  everything;  and  I  was  sur 
prised  to  find  that  her  criticisms  were  always  wise  and 
thoughtful. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GROWING   TOGETHER. 

"  So  we  grew  together 
Like  to  a  double  cherry,  seeming  parted, 
But  yet  an  union  in  partition." 

—  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream,  Hi.  2. 

EVERY  day  Miss  Mary,  as  soon  as  her  school  duties 
were  finished,  found  her  way  into  my  library. 
Every  day  we  held  lengthy  conversations  together. 
Every  day  rny  opinion  of  her  mind  and  character  was 
heightened.  On  Saturdays  and  Sundays  we  took  long 
walks  together,  into  the  fields,  when  I  discoursed  to 
her  upon  my  favorite  study,  botany.  She  was  an  apt 
scholar. 

To  my  surprise  I  began  to  note  the  fact  that  when 
she  was  not  with  me  I  had  a  vague  sense  of  something 
lacking.  I  was  restless,  uncomfortable,  almost  un 
happy.  Every  day  the  pleasure  of  greeting  her  shone 
brighter  from  my  eyes,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  every 
day  her  welcome  of  me  grew  warmer.  "  And  why 
not?  "  said  I  to  myself.  "  We  are  the  only  beings  in 
this  place  who  share  the  same  thoughts  and  the  same 
studies."  To  the  average  man  and  woman  around  us 
the  era-making  Elizabethan  period  was  but  a  name. 
To  us  it  was  the  visible  interference  of  the  hand  of 

God  in  the  affairs  of  men,  through  the  mediumship  of 

31 


$2  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

mighty  intellects,  who  have  affected  the  minds  of  all 
subsequent  generations,  and  whose  power  will  increase 
with  the  growth  of  population  and  the  development  of 
civilization  on  the  earth. 

And  so  we  read  and  studied  together,  and  talked 
together;  and  before  I  was  aware  of  it,  I  —  the  ascetic 
bachelor,  Doctor  Anthony  Huguet  —  I,  who  despised 
all  womankind  —  was  deeply  in  love  with  Colonel 
Ruddiman's  fair  and  wise  young  daughter.  And  I 
could  not  fail  to  see,  with  all  modesty,  that  my  feelings 
were  fully  reciprocated.  The  very  tendrils  of  our  being 
seemed  to  be  intertwining  and  interlacing  with  each 
other,  like  the  roots  of  two  plants  growing  closely 
together,  in  an  inseparable,  undistinguishable  mass.  I 
realized,  for  the  first  time,  what  the  despised  passion 
called  love  really  meant.  I  perceived  that  it  was  a 
going  out  of  one's  self — a  divine  unselfishness;  a 
grand  necessity  imposed  on  humanity  by  Him  who 
made  us  all;  a  merging  together  of  two  minds,  souls, 
natures;  a  lifting  up,  a  glorifying  of  the  whole  creature. 

I  could  realize  that  God  had  forced  upon  us  this 
passion,  for  His  own  purposes;  He  did  not  vilely  enslave 
us  to  it,  but  treated  us  as  His  friends  and  co-workers; 
and  covered  our  instincts  with  splendor  and  beauty, 
in  which  the  hard  lines  of  fate  disappeared,  buried  in 
flowers. 

Every  day  the  passion  grew  upon  me,  until  I  found 
myself  absolutely  wretched  separated  from  my  love.  I 
met  her  with  dancing  eyes,  and  in  reply  her  eyes  danced 
again,  brightened  by  the  red  blushes  that  swept  over 
her. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


33 


But  why  prolong  the  story  of  this  most  charming 
period  of  my  existence  —  for  even  its  pains  graduated 
nto  such  delights  that  the  pains  became  pleasures? 

Suffice  it  to  say  our  hearts  spoke  to  each  other  by  a 
thousand  subtle  modes  of  speech,  long  before  our 
tongues  dared  frame  our  thoughts.  The  course  of  true 
ove,  in  our  case,  ran  smoothly  indeed.  There  were 
no  rocks  in  the  channel  to  torture  the  current  into 
the  foam  or  spray  of  tears.  Many  a  time  afterwards, 
"rom  the  depths  of  the  blackest  and  most  horrid  des 
pair,  did  I  look  back  to  that  golden,  sun-lighted  period, 
as  the  followers  of  Lucifer,  "  the  fallen  star  of  the  morn 
ing,"  may,  in  the  midst  of  the  black  stench  of  sulphur 
smoke,  and  the  red-flashing,  terrifying  flames  of  hell, 
.iave  recalled  the  unspeakable  delights  of  the  glorious, 
flower-covered  valleys  of  Paradise. 

I  loved.  I  was  beloved.  There  were  no  family  objec 
tions  to  be  raised  on  either  side.  We  were  social 
equals.  I  was  rich.  It  seemed  to  me  that  Heaven, 
un walled,  lay  spread  before  my  feet.  I  had  but  to  ad 
vance  and  take  possession  of  it. 

Little,  little  did  I  dream  of  the  awful  barrier  that 
was  soon  to  rise  up  and  shut  me  out  from  my  Eden. 


CHAPTER  V. 

AMBITION. 

"By  that  sin  fell  the  angels;  how  can  man,  then, 
The  image  of  his  Maker,  hope  to  win  by  it  ?" 

—  Henry  VII I.,  in.  2. 

I  HAVE  already  said  that  I  am  not  naturally  ambitious. 
The  scrambles  and  squabbles  of  public  life  have  no 
charms  for  me.  I  have  no  respect  for  that  kind  of 
honor  which  belongs  not  to  the  man  himself,  but  to 
the  place  he  occupies;  and  which  leaves  him  as  soon  as 
he  is  sundered  from  the  place.  It  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  smallest  and  the  most  unsubstantial  of  all  human 
glories.  Who  can  recall  the  long  list  of  Roman  con 
suls?  And  yet  they  were  mightier  than  kings  in  their 
day  —  dreaded  to  the  uttermost  limits  of  the  civilized 
world.  But  they  are  gone  and  forgotten,  while  the 
memory  of  Homer,  of  Plato,  of  Socrates  is  still  fresh 
upon  the  tongues  of  men,  and  they  stand  out,  limned 
upon  the  background  of  the  ages,  as  distinctly  as  the 
living  heroes  of  our  own  era. 

And  yet  I  had  no  claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  philan 
thropist.  I  wished  well  to  the  whole  human  family  ; 
but  I  loved  my  leisure  and  my  pleasures  too  much  to  go 
forth  and  do  battle  for  it.  Life  was  very  delightful  to 
me.  My  home,  my  friends,  my  garden,  my  books,  and 
now,  above  all,  my  love!  Who  would  think  to  leave 


DOCTOR  HUGUF.T.  ^ 

ill  these  and  wrangle  and  wrestle  in  the  mud  of  politics, 
"or  the  temporary  honors  or  the  vile  spoils  of  public 
ife?  I  felt  like  setting  the  dogs  on  the  men  who  called 
ipon  me  to  tempt  me  into  the  dirty  puddle  of  this 
mclean  strife. 

But  Mary  Ruddiman  was  ambitious.  Not  for  herself; 
3ut  she  had,  in  her  partial  love,  formed  an  estimate  of 
ne  and  my  abilities  far  beyond  what  I  deserved.  She 
Delieved  she  saw  in  me  a  great  man,  a  great  orator  and 
statesman,  sunk  and  lost  in  sybaritic  retirement  and 
uxury.  We  had  many  an  argument  upon  this  subject. 
She  told  me  I  must  shake  ofif  my  lethargy.  I  must 
•ouse  myself  and  do  justice  to  my  genius.  The  South 
—  the  new  South,  the  unhappy  South,  darkened  by 
he  shadows  of  its  great  disasters;  humbled  in  the  eyes 
:>f  the  unthinking  nations  by  failure;  overwhelmed 
ay  the  numbers,  wealth  and  intellectual  power  of  the 
Vorth  —  needed  such  rpen  as  I,  to  lift  her  up,  and 
uide  her  to  greater  and  brighter  destinies.  The  stand- 
ng  of  a  country  did  not  depend,  she  said,  upon  mere 
copulation,  or  the  number  of  bales  of  cotton  it  pro 
duced;  nor  even  upon  the  splendor  of  its  cities,  or  the 
ivealth  of  its  people,  but  upon  the  God-given  intellects 
which  it  could  boast.  We  must  prove  to  mankind, 
die  exclaimed,  that  our  warmer  skies  do  not,  as  some 
lave  claimed,  lessen  the  mental  capacities;  that  the 
ibreofthe  brain  may  be  as  firm  in  the  land  of  the 
nagnolias  as  in  the  lands  of  snow  and  ice;  because 
:he  greatest  intellects  of  past  ages  were  nourished  in 
:limates  as  sunny  as  our  own.  "  Rouse  thyself,"  she 
:ried,  "from  thy  torpor  —  let  thy  weak,  wanton  indif- 


36  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

ference  be  shaken   to  air,  like  the  dew-drop  from  the 
lion's  mane!     Be  just  to  thyself!  " 

It  was  beautiful  to  see  her  enthusiasm.  She  grew 
eloquent  upon  the  theme  of  my  greatness.  She  quoted 
Ben  Jonson: 

"  'Tis  place, 
Not  blood,  discerns  the  noble  and  the  base." 

It  is  one  of  the  easiest  things  in  the  world  for  even 
a  modest  man  to  be  persuaded  that  he  is  really  greater 
than  his  own  estimate  of  himself.  Especially  when  the 
argument  is  enforced  by  a  graceful,  youthful  form,  a 
pair  of  glowing,  glorious  eyes,  a  couple  of  shapely, 
ruddy  lips,  and  the  eloquent  gesticulations  of  the  most 
charming  arms  and  hands  in  the  world,  reinforced  by 
all  the  love  and  adoration  that  can  muster  in  a  man's 
heart.  And  so,  day  by  day,  I  began  to  think,  more 
earnestly,  that  the  world  was,  indeed,  really  longing 
and  waiting  for  me  to  serve  and  save  it;  and  that  it 
would  be  a  crime  against  my  race  and  my  country,  and 
especially  my  section,  to  longer  delay  the  revelation  of 
my  greatness. 

Mary  planned  it  all  out.  She  said  I  must  first  go  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  Washington.  My 
wealth,  my  social  standing,  my  education,  my  talents 
would  entitle  me  to  that.  Then  I  must  pave  the  way  to 
enter,  in  a  few  years,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  ; 
—  and  forthwith  she  drew  a  vivid  picture  of  herself 
sitting  in  the  gallery,  listening  to  me  pouring  forth  the 
eloquence  that  would  delight  and  enthrall  the  world.  I 
was  fool  enough  to  believe  it  all. 

Then,  with  her  usual  energy,  she  wrote  at  once  to 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


37 


her  father,  giving  her  plans  and  views.  The  Colonel, 
like  all  men  of  his  class  and  caste  in  the  South,  was 
an  instinctive  politician;  and  it  seemed  moreover  that 
he  was  an  influential  one,  and  resided  in  the  same  Con 
gressional  district  with  myself.  The  Colonel  was  a 
whole-souled  man,  and  he  had  taken  me  warmly  into 
his  heart  of  hearts,  as  the  accepted  lover  of  his  only 
daughter;  and  he  and  his  sons  entered  at  once  with 
zeal  upon  the  task  of  smoothing  my  way  to  the  Dem 
ocratic  nomination. 

It  was  then  approaching  midsummer.  The  school 
was  to  close  for  a  few  weeks;  and  Miss  Mary  was  to  re 
turn  home.  I  received  a  cordial  invitation  from  the 
Colonel  to  visit  the  Ruddiman  mansion;  and  I  accom 
panied  my  beloved  in  the  stage  which  bore  her  to  the 
parental  roof.  It  was  a  hot  and  dusty  ride,  over  a  coun 
try  parched  by  the  excessive  heat  of  the  season;  but 
such  is  the  charm  of  love  that,  as  I  look  back  upon  it, 
it  seems  to  me  I  rode  through  the  valleys  of  the  Hes- 
perides,  fanned  by  cooling  breezes  from  the  Holy 
Mountains,  the  whole  landscape  ablaze  with  many- 
hued  flowers  and  foliage. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LAWYER   BURYIIILL. 

"  Get  thee  glass  eyes, 
And,  like  a  scurvy  politician,  seem 
To  see  the  things  thou  dost  not." 

—  Lear,  iv.  6. 

THERE  was  a  cordial  Southern  welcome  for  me,  from 
the  Colonel  and  all  the  family.  It  must  be  admit 
ted  that  our  people  are  a  big-hearted,  hospitable  race, 
who  can  never  do  too  much  for  those  they  respect  or  love; 
or,  I  might  add,  too  little  for  those  they  dislike.  Their 
loves  and  hates  partake  of  their  summer  suns:  all  their 
opinions  are  convictions;  all  their  feelings  passions. 
But  the  strong  sense  of  personal  honor  has  survived 
here  while  it  seems  to  be  dying  out  under  the  blight  of 
the  commercial,  trading  spirit  of  the  North.  Beyond 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line  politics  are  an  individual  grab 
for  profits;  in  the  South  they  are  devotion  to  ideas  and 
theories  of  statecraft,  which  may  not  be  correct,  but 
are  always  respectable  from  their  sincerity.  One  of 
the  most  beautiful  traits  of  Southern  character  is  its 
fiery  devotion  to  the  great  men  of  its  section.  The 
South  stands  by  them  with  passionate  partisanship,  ex 
aggerating  their  best  qualities  and  ignoring  their  weak 
ones.  It  honors  them  living  and  worships  them  dead. 

In  the  North  to  be  a  great  man  is  simply  to  invite  un- 

38 


DOC  J  OR  IIUGUET. 


39 


sympathetic  criticism  of  every  detail  of  the  individual's 
career  and  character;  to  become  the  conspicuous  target 
for  limitless  abuse  and  insult  while  living,  and  to  re 
ceive  halting,  grudging  praise  when  dead,  with  the 
promise  of  a  monument  which  is  rarely  built.  The 
South  regards  genius  with  grateful  eyes,  lifted  to 
heaven;  the  North  with  its  nose  in  the  air,  to  smell 
out  the  faults  of  its  victim. 

The  prosperous  Southern  plantation  is  a  sort  of  little 
kingdom  in  itself,  and  largely  self-supporting.  It  runs 
in  a  circle.  Asa  Southerner  once  said:  "  We  raise  corn 
to  raise  the  hogs;  we  raise  hogs  to  raise  the  negroes; 
and  we  raise  the  negroes  to  raise  the  corn."  But  the 
directing  white  intelligence  reserves  to  itself  a  small 
percentage  of  the  net  profits,  for  the  luxuries  of  life 
and  the  adornments  of  civilization,  including  books 
and  newspapers;  and  thus  the  higher  life  of  the  world 
is  scattered,  in  points  of  light,  through  vast  regions  of 
country,  gradually  penetrating  to  wider  and  wider  cir 
cles  in  the  darkness  of  primeval  ignorance.  And  thus 
He  who  runs  the  whole  great  automatic  machine  is  car 
rying  out  His  purposes,  and  gradually  lifting  up  man 
kind. 

The  life  of  the  plantation  is  so  monotonous  and  iso 
lated  that  an  intelligent  man,  with  new  ideas  and 
new  facts,  coming  from  the  outside  world,  is  a  God- 
given  boon  and  blessing.  The  brain,  weary  with  con 
templating  the  same  fields,  buildings,  barns,  pig-pens, 
animals,  trees  and  hills,  rises,  with  absolute  delight,  out 
of  its  ruts,  and  is  conscious  of  new  sensations  and  new 
capabilities.  And  so  we  sat,  by  the  hour, — the  Colonel 


40  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

and  his  sons  and  I, —  upon  the  broad  porch,  smoking 
and  discussing  the  affairs  of  the  whole  world.  The 
porch  is  the  Southern  academy. 

And  the  neighbors,  to  whom  the  Colonel's  grand 
scheme  had  been  communicated  in  confidence,  began 
to  gather,  returning  late  at  night  on  horseback,  or 
sharing  the  hospitality  of  the  household  for  the  night. 
And  the  young  ladies  of  the  neighborhood,  bright, 
attractive,  high-spirited  girls,  called  to  gossip  and  chat 
or  ride  with  Miss  Mary. 

It  was  a  very  bright  and  pleasant  life  —  kindly  and 
social  and  generous.  No  man  was  trying  to  outwit  or 
plunder  his  fellow.  The  discussions  of  politics  —  apart 
from  the  natural,  local  prejudices  —  were  all  conducted 
on  a  high  plane  —  the  good  of  their  section.  There 
was,  to  be  sure,  a  sort  of  half-expressed  feeling  that 
the  South  had  been  caught  in  a  kind  of  eddy  of  dead 
water  full  of  the  drift- wood  of  old  opinions,  far  remote 
from  the  great,  surging,  swollen,  rapidly-advancing 
stream  of  the  world.  And  yet  they  felt,  too,  that 
that  stream  was  covered  with  the  debris  of  selfishness, 
and  its  shores  lined  with  cruel  wreckers;  and  that  its 
waters  poured  over  the  drowned  caves  of  abysmal  and 
multitudinous  want;  and  that  —  in  comparison  with  it 
all  —  their  lives  were  honorable  and  sweet  and  idyllic. 

There  was  Major  Archibald  McFettriclge,  who  had 
lost  his  left  arm  at  Gettysburg.  A  Scotchman,  with 
all  the  best  traits  of  his  great  race  —  shrewd,  kindly, 
capable;  ready  to  die  for  his  opinions,  but  with  an 
open  eye  in  the  meantime  for  the  main  chance.  His 


DOCTOR  f/UGUET.  41 

heart  was  as  broad  as  his  accent.  He  owned  the  next 
plantation  and  was  universally  liked  and  respected. 

And  there,  too,  was  Captain  William  Braynton,  who 
had  lost  two  brothers  in  the  war,  and  had  been  severely 
wounded  himself,  more  than  once.  He  also  was  a 
planter,  a  high-mettled,  chivalric,  but  undemonstrative 
and  quiet  gentleman. 

And  Major  Berrisford  came  too,  a  neighbor  with  a 
large  family  of  handsome  daughters,  rather  "  under  the 
harrow,"  as  they  say,  financially.  But  he  also  had  a 
fine  war-record,  and  was  much  liked.  In  fact,  a  good 
war-record  in  our  section  is  equal  to  a  coat-of-arms  of 
the  nobility  in  other  countries. 

And  occasionally  Doctor  Magruder,  an  intelligent 
physician  of  the  old  school,  of  the  neighboring  village  of 

N ,  drove  over  and  took  part  in  our  discussions. 

A  well-to-do  man,  of  resolute  character,  and  generally 
liked.  He  was  a  Northern  man  by  birth,  but  fully  in 
sympathy  with  the  people  of  his  new  home,  while  not 
permitting  any  disparagement  of  the  land  of  his  nativity. 

It  was  pleasant  to  sit,  in  the  cool  of  the  evening,  on 
the  piazza,  and  listen  to  the  war-stories  of  these  old 
heroes.  To  the  philosophic  mind  they  illustrated  what 
a  curious  fighting  animal  man  is,  and  how  singularly, 
under  high  excitements,  he  considers  life  and  limb  as 
of  less  consequence  than  insistance  upon  his  own 
opinions.  It  seemed  to  me  strange  that  a  man  should 
be  willing  to  go  out  of  the  world  to  improve  the  world, 
when,  after  he  goes  out  of  it,  the  world  can  be  of  no 
further  interest  to  him.  The  presence  of  vast  war- 
passions,  in  great  bodies  of  men,  inciting  them  to  dash 


42 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


themselves  to  death,  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  world. 
I  suppose  those  passions  are  the  survivals  of  emotions 
and  habits  possessed  by  our  remote  savage  ancestors, 
when  every  particle  of  food  a  man  swallowed  had  to  be 
fought  for,  and  one  man  lived  only  by  another  man's 
death.  The  human  being,  as  all  wars  testify,  is,  when 
you  take  off  the  crust  of  social  refinement,  simply  a 
ferocious  wild  beast. 

I  was  interested  especially  in  one  story  which  was 
told,  and  which  illustrated  how  familiar  one  can  become 
with  the  horrors  of  battle.  A  Confederate  general, 
with,  as  it  seems,  a  ghastly  sense  of  humor,  rose  from 
the  battle-field,  where  he  had  been  sleeping,  after  a 
hard-fought  fight,  and  drew  his  cloak  around  him,  for 
the  morning  was  chilly.  His  place  of  slumber  had 
been  close  to  an  extemporized  field-hospital,  and  all 
aroupd  him  lay  dead  bodies  and  amputated  legs  and 
arms.  He  saw  one  of  his  colonels  approaching  him 
through  the  mist  of  early  morning,  and,  stooping 
down,  he  picked  up  an  arm  which  had  been  taken 
from  some  poor  fellow,  and,  hiding  it  under  his  cloak, 
approached  his  friend. 

"  Good  morning,  Colonel,"  he  said,  extending  the 
dead  hand  from  beneath  his  cloak. 

"  Good  morning,  General,"  replied  the  Colonel, 
grasping  the  cold,  dead  member. 

The  General  stepped  back,  leaving  the  naked  hand 
and  arm  in  the  grasp  of  the  Colonel,  who  turned  white 
with  horror,  and  almost  fainted  when  he  perceived 
what  he  held.  And  the  General  broke  into  a  roar  of 
laughter  which  was  interrupted  only  by  the  renewal  of 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


43 


the  battle.  Think  of  it!  Men  on  the  very  verge  of 
eternity  practicing  such  jokes  with  the  mutilated  frag 
ments  of  mortality. 

There  was  one  man  who  sometimes  came  over  to 
our  conferences  on  the  porch,  in  his  handsome  carriage, 
driven  by  his  black  boy,  who,  although  always  made 
welcome  and  treated  with  uniform  courtesy  and  hos 
pitality,  never  failed  to  cast  a  chilling  shadow  over  our 

intercourse.  This  was  Lawyer  Buryhill,  of  C . 

We  all  have  our  instincts,  and  mine  warned  me  against 
this  man  from  the  very  first.  And  yet  he  was  not  ill- 
looking.  He  was  a  medium-sized  man,  of  dark  com 
plexion,  active  in  his  motions  and  pleasant  in  his 
manners;  but  there  was  a  look  out  of  his  furtive, 
rapidly-rolling  black  eyes,  as  if  they  would  grasp  every 
thing  they  encountered  —  a  greedy,  cruel  look.  And 
his  hair  stood  up,  especially  upon  the  middle  line  of 
his  head,  in  a  way  that  reminded  me  unpleasantly  of 
the  bristles  I  once  observed  on  the  back  of  a  hyena  in 
a  menagerie.  The  suavity  of  his  mouth  and  the  soft 
ness  of  his  mellifluous  voice  were  strongly  and  promptly 
contradicted  by  the  hardness  and  the  greed  of  his  eyes, 
which,  as  from  a  watch-tower,  looked  out  over  the 
sham  of  his  face,  and  seemed  to  say  to  the  observer, 

Do  not  be  deceived  by  these  wrecker's  lights;  here  is 
the  real  man.  Beware  of  the  rocks."  Indeed,  it 
always  seemed  to  me  that  he  regarded  those  about  him 
in  a  sort  of  rapacious,  proprietary  way,  very  like  a 
man-eating  tiger  who  drools  a  little  at  the  mouth  as 
he  contemplates  the  group  of  unconscious  Hindoos  he 
is  about  to  spring  upon.  So  when  Buryhill  looked  at 


44 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


his  fellow-man  it   was  as   if  his  softly  working  mouth 
tasted  the  pleasant  flavor  of  property. 

He  was  from  New  York.  He  was  not  popular.  It 
was  said — but  no  one  knew  with  how  much  truth  — 
that  he  had  been  what  is  called  a  "  Tombs  shyster," 
but,  becoming  involved  in  some  transactions  too  dis 
reputable  for  even  that  corrupt  atmosphere,  he  had 
removed  to  the  South.  He  had  made  a  good  deal 
of  money  dealing  in  tax  titles,  buying  up  outstanding 
claims  to  real  estate  and  making  them  good  by  litigation, 
and  in  other  questionable  ways.  He  had  no  friends, 
but  was  generally  feared  for  his  capacities  for  evil. 
And,  moreover,  it  is  the  rule  with  Southern  gentlemen 
to  treat  a  man  in  the  most  courteous  manner  up  to  the 
point  where  they  find  it  necessary  to  shoot  him. 

I  did  not  understand  at  that  time  the  reason  of  his 
visits  to  Colonel  Ruddiman's  house.  I  ascertained 
afterwards  that  he  had  fixed  upon  the  Colonel  as  one  of 
his  victims.  He  regarded  him  as  a  careless,  jovial, 
generous  sort  of  man,  a  fool  in  his  eyes,  who  owed  a 
good  deal  of  money  and  neglected  to  look  after  his 
own  business  in  his  zealous  devotion  to  public  affairs. 
And  so  he  proceeded  to  quietly  buy  up  the  mortgages 
against  the  Ruddiman  plantation  and  certain  outstanding 
tax  titles  in  the  names  of  third  parties,  and  was  steadily 
weaving  his  net  around  the  unfortunate  man.  But 
behind  his  natural  rapacity  there  was  another  reason 
for  his  visits.  He  had  noticed  Mary  Ruddiman's 
charms  of  form  and  face;  he  contemplated  them  in 
very  much  the  same  spirit  with  which  he  would  regard 
the  fine  points  of  a  handsome  race-horse.  They 


DOCTOR  IIUCUET. 


45 


showed  blood,  which  he  sadly  lacked,  and  his  mar 
riage  to  her  would,  he  knew,  give  him  a  standing  in 
the  community  which  he  could  never  win  by  his  own 
merits.  To  Miss  Mary,  as  might  be  expected,  he  was 
utterly  loathsome:  she  shrank  from  him  instinctively, 
as  a  child  shrinks  from  a  reptile,  although  at  this  time 
she  did  not  dream  that  he  had  turned  his  proprietary 
gaze  upon  her.  But  he  was  a  man  of  wealth  and  pro 
fessional  prominence,  and  therefore  to  be  treated  as  a 
gentleman,  for  in  the  South  (as  in  England)  the  pro 
fessions  and  the  land  furnish  the  gentlemen. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ABIGAIL. 

"  The  musky  daughter  of  the  Nile, 
Willi  plaited  hair  and  almond  eyes." 

— Holmes. 

AMONG  the  servants  at  the  Ruddiman  house  I  met 
with  a  surprise. 

It  was  the  second  day  after  my  arrival.  I  was  pass 
ing  along  the  corridor,  soon  after  breakfast,  when  I 
came  face  to  face  with  a  young  girl.  At  the  first 
glance  I  thought  she  was  one  of  Miss  Mary's  visitors; 
but,  as  I  stepped  aside  to  let  her  pass,  a  second  look- 
showed  me  that  she  was  one  of  those  unfortunate 
beings  who,  while  nearly  white,  hold  in  their  veins 
a  mere  fraction  of  negro  blood,  sufficient,  however, 
according  to  our  social  prejudices,  to  damn  her  white 
blood  to  unlimited  public  contempt.  Even  I  —  gentle 
man  as  I  claim  to  be  —  found  that  the  hat  which  I  had 
raised  to  her,  as  a  Saxon,  instinctively  fell  as  I  realized 
she  was  an  octoroon.  And  yet  many  an  Egyptian 
Pharaoh  had  taken  to  his  breast,  and  covered  with  his 
crown,  beauties  that  were  many  shades  darker  than  the 
skin  I  looked  upon.  Caesar,  and  Cicero,  and  Pompey, 
and  Cato,  had  loved  and  wedded  women  more  dusky 
of  hue  than  this  fair  creature.  In  the  abandon  of  our 

pride   over    the   whiteness  of  our  skin,   bleached   by 

46 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  47 

thousands  of  years  of  northern  storms  and  ice  and 
snow,  we  forget  that  the  greatest  part  of  mankind, 
including  all  the  great  nations  of  antiquity,  Egyptians, 
Hindoos,  Assyrians,  Greeks  and  Romans,  were  much 
darker  than  ourselves  ;  that  it  is  only  of  late  years 
that  the  pale-faced  Goth  is  leading  the  advance  of  the 
world  ;  and  that,  if  we  take  out  of  the  accumulations 
of  the  past  those  arts,  inventions,  works  and  thoughts 
derived  from  people  as  shadowy  in  hue  as  our  own 
mulattoes,  there  would  be  little  left  for  our  civilization 
to  boast  of. 

These  thoughts  did  not  come  to  me  at  the  moment, 
for  I  was  lost  in  astonishment.  Perceiving  that  she  be 
longed  to  the  inferior  caste,  I  replaced  my  hat  and 
stopped  to  talk  familiarly  with  her.  She  said,  in  an 
swer  to  my  question,  that  her  name  was  Abigail.  I 
learned  afterward  that  she  was  the  natural  daughter  of 
one  of  Colonel  Ruddiman's  brothers,  now  deceased,  and 
acted  as  waiting-maid  to  Miss  Mary.  She  was  of  me 
dium  height  and  plump  of  figure;  the  lines  of  her  person 
flowed  into  each  other  everywhere  with  graceful  curves; 
the  wrists,  I  noticed,  were  large;  the  hands  small  and 
soft,  the  breasts  large,  the  limbs  taper;  the  whole  figure 
was  beautiful  and  suggestive  of  luxuriousness.  Her 
eyes  were  large,  long  and  black,  and  the  pupils  seemed 
to  cover  the  iris;  the  face  was  exceedingly  handsome; 
only  in  the  fullness  of  the  lips  and  chin,  and  the  non- 
Gothic,  almond-shaped  eyes  were  there  any  indications 
of  the  bar-sinister  in  her  pedigree;  her  hair  black  and 
flowing,  but  in  graceful  curls.  Her  countenance  was 
modest  and  betokened  unusual  intelligence.  In  fact, 


48  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

there  was  such  decorum  and  fitness  in  her  replies  that 
I  found  myself  forgetting  that  she  belonged  to  the  pro 
scribed  class,  and  when  \ve  parted  I  lifted  my  hat  to 
her  as  I  would  have  done  to  a  duchess.  I  learned 
subsequently  from  Miss  Mary  that  Abigail  possessed  a 
fair  education,  and  had  even  picked  up  some  knowledge 
of  music.  They  had  been  very  much  together  as 
children,  and,  although  the  relation  of  mistress  and 
servant  had  always  existed  between  them,  Miss  Mary 
had  become  greatly  attached  to  her.  Indeed,  the 
original  and  strong  mind  of  that  young  lady  had  risen, 
to  some  degree,  above  the  prejudices  of  her  caste;  and 
she  saw  the  white  of  Abigail  and  not  the  fraction  of 
the  negro,  and  treasured  her  for  her  affectionate  nature 
and  many  good  qualities.  Indeed,  she  often  spoke  to 
me  of  her  sympathy  for  the  poor  girl.  Abigail  had 
many  gloomy  moments  which  her  mistress  knew  well 
how  to  interpret.  The  seven-eighths  of  her  blood  pro 
tested  against  being  dragged  down  to  servile  life  by  the 
other  eighth.  She  well  knew  what  a  dreadful  barrier  of 
prejudice  stood  in  the  way  of  her  becoming  the  wife 
of  any  respectable  white  man;  while  she  shrank,  with 
Saxon  horror,  against  descending  still  lower  in  the 
social  scale  to  marriage  with  one  of  the  darker  stock. 
And  yet  she  was  fair  and  graceful  and  intelligent,  and 
fitted  to  make  any  man  happy.  But  society  had  placed 
gyves  on  her  feet,  and  manacles  on  her  hands;  she- 
could  fall,  but  she  could  not  rise.  The  inextinguish 
able  taint  of  the  slave  was  upon  her;  a  taint  more 
dreadful  than  leprosy;  more  fearful  than  the  mark 
which  the  Lord  God  branded  on  the  brow  of  the 


DOCTOR  HL'GUET.  49 

murderer  Cain.  High  walls  of  caste  were  built  around 
her,  and  she  could  not  see  the  sun  of  hope  shining  into 
her  prison-house,  even  at  high  noon.  The  whole 
world  was  banded  against  her  —  against  her,  a  white 
woman!  All  that  was  bright  and  cultured  and  beauti 
ful  in  the  world  pointed  her  downward  to  the  abyss  of 
dishonor,  and  with  jeers  and  mockings  told  her  that 
her  white  womanhood  was  fit  only  for  degradation. 
The  humblest  foreign  immigrant — poor,  ignorant, 
starving  —  might  rise;  his  children,  in  another  gene 
ration,  might  be  lords  in  the  land;  nay,  his  son  might 
ascend  to  the  topmost  chair  of  state:  for  them  and 
theirs  there  were  no  social  limitations;  but  for  the  man 
or  woman  marked  with  the  ancient  brand  of  abhorrent 
slavery,  surrounded  by  century-old  prejudices,  there  is 
no  future,  no  hope;  life  is  a  grave;  the  eighth,  the  six 
teenth,  the  thirty-second  part  of  the  despised  blood  is 
enough  to  mark  their  ostracism.  This  is  the  only  case 
in  America  where  the  majority  does  not  rule;  where 
the  smallest  minority  overwhelms  the  largest  plurality. 
I  might  aptly  quote  Hamlet: 

"  So  oft  it  chances  in  particular  men, 
That  for  some  vicious  mole  of  nature  in  them, 
As  in  their  birth  (wherein  they  are  not  guilty, 
Since  nature  cannot  choose  its  origin); 
By  their  overgrowth  of  some  complexion, 
Oft  breaking  down  the  forts  and  pales  of  reason; 
Or  by  some  habit,  that  too  much  o'er-leavens 
The  form  of  plausive  manners;  —  that  these  men, — 
Carrying,  I  say.  the  stamp  of  one  defect, 
Being  nature's  livery  or  fortune's  star.  — 
Their  virtues  else,  be  they  as  pure  as  grace. 
As  infinite  as  man  may  undergo, 


5O  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

Shall  in  the  general  censure  take  corruption 
From  that  particular  fault;  —  the  dram  of  bale 
Doth  all  the  noble  substance  off  and  out 
To  his  own  scandal. " 

Many  times  Mary  and  I  conversed  together  about 
poor  Abigail  and  her  hard  lot;  and  I  must  say  that  I 
began  to  conceive  therefrom  new  ideas  touching  the 
negro  race.  I  had  never  been  hostile  to  them,  and  had 
always  treated  those  I  came  in  contact  with  kindly;  but 
it  seemed  to  me  that,  thinking  over  Miss  Mary's  poor 
handmaid,  my  heart  commenced  to  soften  toward  them 
more  than  ever.  I  realized,  as  I  had  never  done 
before,  the  vast  burden  they  carried  of  prejudice  and 
injustice.  Ah!  little  did  I  think  that  the  time  was  not 
far  distant  when  I  should  realize  the  pressure  of  a 
heavier  burden  in  most  dreadful  fashion. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    DEBATE. 

"  When  mind  meets  mind 
To  blend  and  brighten." 

— Mrs.  Sigonrney. 

ONE  pleasant  afternoon  a  group  of  us  sat  upon  the 
Colonel's  broad  veranda,  smoking  and  talking, 
when  the  conversation  chanced  to  turn  upon  the  all- 
pervading  negro  question.  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
fiery  invective  upon  the  subject. 

This  is  how  it  came  about :  Colonel  Ruddiman 
expressed  the  conviction  that  only  the  Anglo-Saxon 
was  fit  for  self-government,  and  that  attempts- to  that 
end,  by  any  other  race,  could  only  end  in  bloodshed 
and  anarchy;  and  he  pointed  to  the  French  Revolution 
and  the  Reign  of  Terror  in  justification  of  his  opinion. 

I  was  lying  back  in  a  hammock,  watching  the  smoke 
curling  in  wreaths  from  my  cigar,  when,  from  pure 
wantonness  and  idleness,  I  took  issue  with  him.  I  re 
plied  by  pointing  to  the  fact  that  the  French  people 
had,  for  some  years  past,  succeeded  in  maintaining  a 
very  respectable  republic,  with  peace,  order  and  prog 
ress;  and  I  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Reign  of 
Terror  was  a  godsend  to  the  oppressors  of  mankind, 
for  it  had  been  their  stock  in  trade  for  nearly  a  century. 

I  further  said  that  the  French  Revolution  was  the  great- 
si 


5  2  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

est  blessing  that  had  ever  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  French 
people;  in  fact,  it  had  lifted  up  all  Europe.  A  man, 
I  said,  had  only  to  read  Arthur  Young's  description  of 
the  awful  condition  of  the  French  peasantry,  just  before 
that  great  outbreak,  when  he  saw  them  coming  down, 
half-naked  and  half-starved,  out  of  the  mountains,  to 
pay  the  government  tax  on  salt, — the  only  thing  out  of 
which  the  King  and  courtiers  could  wring  an  income, 
because  it  was  the  last  necessity  of  the  barest  and  most 
wretched  animal  existence, —  to  realize  the  justice  of 
that  revolution.  All  the  European  nations,  I  said, 
were  of  one  stock —  or,  strictly  speaking,  of  two  stocks, 
a  dark  and  a  light  one,  commingled  in  varying  propor 
tions;  and  the  real  differences  of  men  depended  on  their 
environment  and  conditions. 

Major  McFettridge,  who  was  something  of  a  radical, 
and  had  read  the  history  of  the  French  Revolution  and 
the  Napoleonic  wars  with  the  attention  and  interest  of 
a  soldier,  confirmed  my  view. 

"  Indeed,"  he  said,  "  it  was  vera  plain  that  the  an 
cient  regime  could  na  gae  langer  at  the  auld  gait.  It 
was  royalty  and  not  the  people  that  brought  about  the 
Reign  o'  Terror.  There  was  nae  way  out  o'  it  but  rav- 
elution.  When  a  sma'  minority  owned  a'  the  land  and 
the  great  majority  paid  a'  the  taxes,  the  eend  was  cer 
tain.  I  do  na  wonder  that  Robbie  Burns  sympathized 
wi'  the  French  people;  every  honest  man  wad  do  so. 
Hear  Robbie: 

"  'May  liberty  meet  wi'  success  ! 
May  prudence  protect  her  from  evil! 
May  tyrants  and  tyranny  tire  in  the  mist, 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  53 

And  wander  their  way  to  the  devil. 
Here's  freedom  to  him  that  wad  read, 
Here's  freedom  to  him  that  wad  write ! 
There's  none  ever  feared 
That  the  truth  should  be  heered, 
But  they  wham  the  truth  wad  indict.' 

"  God  bless  Robbie,"  said  the  Major,  as  if  to  him 
self;  "  when  he  says  a  thing  there  is  nae  use  of  ony- 
body  else  trying  to  say  it  any  ither  way  after  him." 

"  But,  Major,"  said  I,  "  it  seems  to  me  that  you  are 
not  consistent;  you  do  not  apply  Burns'  noble  senti 
ments  to  any  but  the  French  and  Scotch  and  other 
foreign  nations.  How  about  the  negroes?  " 

The  whole  company  looked  at  me  with  astonishment. 

"  Is  it  the  black  de'ils?"  asked  the  Major. 

"  Certainly,"  I  said,  seeing  I  was  in  for  it;  and,  like 
Macbeth,  I  was 

"  Stepped  in  so  far,  that,  should  I  wade  no  more, 
Returning  were  as  tedious  as  go  o'er." 

"  Why,  surely,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  the  principles 
that  apply  to  white  men  do  not  reach  those  wretched 
creatures;  they  are  hardly  human." 

"  Simian, "said  Lawyer  Buryhill,  who  had  a  smatter 
ing  of  scientific  knowledge. 

"  They  prove  the  truth  of  Darwinism,"  added  Major 
Bcrrisford;  "  they  are  one  of  the  links  that  bind  our 
own  race  to  the  animal  creation." 

"  No,  no,  gentleman,"  I  replied;  "  do  not  be  unfair 
to  them:  a  race  that  could  produce  a  Toussaint 
L'Ouverture  is  not  simian.  You  cannot  rank  a  coal- 
black  negro,  like  Toussaint  —  who  compelled  the  sur- 


54 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


render  of  a  French  army,  under  Brandicourt;  took 
twenty-eight  Spanish  batteries  in  four  days;  and,  with 
half  their  force,  compelled  the  surrender  of  an  English 
army  —  with  the  monkeys.  He  brought  Napoleon's 
brother-in-law,  Leclerc,  to  his  knees,  and  was  only 
overcome  at  last  by  treachery.  The  darkest  page  in 
the  history  of  the  great  Corsican  is  his  treatment  of 
that  magnificent  negro.  He  kidnaped  him  by  fraud 
and  left  him  to  die  of  starvation,  and  be  eaten  by  the 
rats,  in  a  French  prison.  If  he  had  treated  a  white 
general  in  that  manner,  the  whole  world  would  have 
risen  up  to  denounce  him;  but  Toussaint's  dusky  skin 
justified  everything." 

"  But  will  you  not  admit,"  asked  Buryhill,  who  was 
more  Southern  than  the  Southerners  in  his  intolerance 
of  the  blacks,  "  that  the  negro  stands  nearer  to  the 
brute  world  than  all  other  races?" 

"  No,"  I  said;  "  I  do  not  admit  it.  But,  even  if  it 
were  true,  there  is  a  vast,  an  impassable  gulf  between 
the  lowest  man  and  the  highest  ape;  a  gap  which  only 
the  creative  presence  of  the  great  God,  with  vast 
designs  for  the  human  race,  could  fill.  And,  if  the  taint 
of  the  brute  origin  adheres  to  the  negro,  does  it  not 
cling  to  us  all?  If  the  son  of  a  murderer  stands  dis 
graced,  does  not  his  grandson  inherit  something  of  the 
shame?  If  the  white  man  is  but  a  bleached  negro, 
what  right  has  he  to  mock  his  dark  progenitor?  The 
credit  is  due,  not  to  him,  but  to  the  cold  and  clouds  of 
the  stormy  north,  or  the  darkness  of  the  troglodytes' 
caves,  during  myriads  of  years.  But,  after  all,  the 
matter  must  be  considered  from  a  higher  level. 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


55 


What  right  have  we  to  question  God  —  the  recipients  of 
whose  bounty  we  are,  for  life  itself  and  all  its  blessings  — 
and  ask  Him  why  He  sees  fit  to  put  other  men  on  this 
planet,  and  paint  their  skin  a  different  color  from  our 
own?  It  would  be  better  for  us  to  thank  Him,  on  our 
bent  knees,  For  sweeping  away  the  ape-like  intermediate 
forms  —  half  man  and  half  brute  —  with  all  a  man's 
cunning,  and  all  a  brute's  ferocity — which  once  occupied 
the  earth  in  swarming  multitudes.  Fancy  a  world 
thick  with  such  soulless  monsters,  and  man  contending, 
in  the  midst  of  them,  for  a  foothold  on  the  planet. 
Civilization  would  have  been  impossible." 

"  Oh,"  said  Buryhill,  with  a  sneer,  for  he  had 
observed  Mary  listening  at  the  open  window,  "  the  best 
intelligences  are  now  agreed  that  the  belief  in  God  is 
one  of  the  fables  of  the  world's  youth;  and  that  there 
is  nothing  in  the  universe  but  this  self-acting,  self- 
perpetuating  thing  we  call  Nature." 

"  Indeed  !  "  I  said, warming  up,  for  I  too  was  conscious 
of  Mary's  presence.  "  Indeed  !  why,  you  use  the  very 
intelligence  which  God  has  given  you  to  deny  that  there 
is  an  Intelligence  in  the  universe.  You  conceive  of  a 
great  work-shop  without  a  master  mechanic.  You 
perceive  a  million  delicate  adjustments  in  nature,  and 
you  conclude  that  those  adjustments  adjusted  them 
selves.  You  would  have  design,  but  no  designer. 
Consider  it  but  a  moment.  To  permit  you  to  deny  God, 
with  your  thoughts  and  your  tongue,  there  have  to  be 
ten  thousand  curious  and  cunning  inventions  applied 
to  your  own  body,  so  subtle  that  science  has  not  yet 
been  able  to  apprehend,  much  less  explain,  but  a  few 


56  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

of  them.  The  process  of  thought  is  inexplicable  on 
any  physical  basis.  How  can  a  mass  of  pulpy  matter, 
which  we  call  the  brain,  dart  out  lines  of  something 
that  shall  travel  to  the  remotest  borders  of  the  milky 
way,  and  weigh,  as  in  a  grocer's  balance,  the  very 
planets  and  suns?  If  you  would  deny  God,  you  must 
begin  by  denying  yourself,  for  the  power  to  think  that 
there  is  or  is  not  a  God  implies  a  thought-power  some 
where  in  the  universe  of  which  your  intellect  is  a 
fragment  or  fraction.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  a 
vast  creation  without  a  general  intelligence;  a  creation 
possessing  only  spots  of  unconnected  intelligence, 
scattered  here  and  there,  self-born,  self-luminous,  and 
mortal." 

"  Vera  true,"  said  Major  McFettridge;  "  if  it  was  na 
for  some  great  power, — ,as  Burns  says, 

"  Some  power  supreme,  whose  mighty  scheme 
These  woes  of  mine  fulfill,  "- 

this  weel-ordered  universe  wad  fly  to  pieces  before  you 
could  raise  up  your  han'.  You  arc  right;  Doctor,  I  hold 
ye'rc  right  in  that." 

But,"  said  Captain  Berrisford,  "  we  arc  wandering 
from  the  subject  —  the  negroes.  Do  you  pretend, 
Doctor  Huguet,  that  the  black  man  is  equal  to  the 
white?" 

"  No,"  I  replied;  "  I  do  not  say  what  the  black  race 
may  come  to  be  in  time,  under  favorable  conditions, 
but  at  present  I  admit  that  they  are  an  inferior  people. 
It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  for  countless 
generations  they  have  occupied  the  most  malarial  and 
unhealthy  lands  in  the  world  —  lands  in  which  no  white 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  57 

child  can  pass  the  age  of  puberty,  in  which  no  white 
adult's  life  is  worth  a  year's  purchase.  The  relations  of 
bacteria  to  the  races  are  as  yet  but  little  understood. 
We  have  simply  progressed  far  enough  in  knowledge 
to  understand  their  existence.  It  may  be  established 
hereafter  that  our  white  superiority  of  brain  and  beauty 
of  body  are  due  to  the  fact  that  our  ancestors  dwelt  for 
long  ages  in  lands  so  cold  and  inhospitable  that  microbe- 
life  could  not  endure  it.  The  negro  race  has  lived  for 
possibly  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  in  regions 
where  every  breath  they  breathed  was  full  of  hostile 
forms  of  life.  Their  black  skins,  their  swollen  faces, 
their  depressed  noses,  represent  the  physical  degrada 
tion  of  ages  of  such  conditions,  with  the  pressure  of 
brutal  ignorance  and  insufficient  food." 

"  Yes,"  said  Doctor  Magruder,  "  I  see  it  is  now 
claimed  by  a  new  school  of  scientists  that  the  mental 
inferiority  of  the  negroes  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
sutures  of  the  skull  close  at  an  earlier  age  than  those  of 
other  races,  and  the  thick  skull,  thus  becoming  solid, 
arrests  the  growth  of  the  brain." 

"  Precisely,"  I  said;  "  and  the  school-teachers  will 
tell  you  that  the  negro  child,  up  to  a  certain  age,  is 
fully  as  bright,  and  as  capable  of  receiving  education, 
as  the  white  child;  but  then  a  change  comes  over  him; 
he  grows  stolid,  stupid  and  indifferent." 

"  What  is  it  causes  the  greater  thickness  of  the  skull 
of  the  negro?"  asked  the  Colonel. 

It  is  simply  the  result  of  an  effort  of  nature,"  I 
replied,  "  to  protect  the  brain  from  the  intense  rays  of 
the  tropical  sun.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  if  the  black 


58  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

race  continues  to  dwell  in  temperate  climates  for  gen 
erations,  the  skull  will  lose  this  unnecessary  density, 
and  the  brain  will  continue  to  expand,  with  the  demands 
made  upon  it,  as  with  the  white  race.  It  is  a  wonder 
ful  thing  to  think  of,  that  the  mental  superiority  of  this 
great  conquering,  colonizing  white  race  may  be  due  to 
the  fact  that  their  ancestors  lived  for  generations  in 
lands  where  the  sun's  rays  were  feeble,  and  the  skull 
grew  thin  and  plastic  to  the  growth  of  the  brain.  The 
negro's  intellect  has  been,  as  it  were,  a  helpless  captive 
in  a  prison  of  bone.  And  yet  upon  these  physiological 
effects  of  climate  has  depended  the  history  of  the 
world:  —  they  have  made  one  race  a  race  of  masters, 
and  another  a  race  of  servants.  There  is  scientific  rea 
son  to  believe  that  the  first  inhabitants  of  Europe  were 
negroes,  and  that  they  were,  in  part,  our  own  ancestors. 
It  is  claimed  that  the  long  skull,  the  dolichocephalic 
skull,  of  the  white  man,  as  contra-distinguished  from 
the  bracJiycepJialic  or  short  skull  of  the  Mongols,  was 
derived  by  us  from  remote  negro  ancestors.  The 
Neanderthal  skull,  the  oldest  European  skull,  is  strikingly 
negroloid.  If  this  theory  is  correct,  the  white  man 
is,  to  some  extent,  a  climatically  modified  negro;  but 
vast  lapses  of  time  were  necessary  for  this  transforma 
tion.  The  extreme  north  —  in  lands  perhaps  now  sunk 
under  the  sea  —  was  the  original  habitat  of  our  wonder 
ful  race." 

"  I  don't  like  to  listen  to  such  views,"  said  Buryhill. 
"The  idea  that  the  white  man's  ancestors  were  negroes! 
Pardon  me  the  expression,  Doctor,  but  it  seems  to  me 
absurd." 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


59 


"  I  know,"  I  replied,  "  that  it  runs  counter  to  your 
prejudices  —  I  will  not  say  your  inherited  prejudices  — 
for  I  believe  you  are  from  the  North." 

Buryhill  winced,  for  he  does  not  like  allusions  to  his 
Northern  origin.  He  is  rather  ashamed  of  the  fact. 
Like  the  chameleon,  such  men  take  color  from  their 
surroundings. 

"  Is  it  any  more  strange,"  I  continued,  "  than  the 
fact  that  the  reddish-brown  Arabs,  according  to  Burck- 
harclt  and  others,  have  become  black  in  Africa.  In 
fact,  equatorial  Africa  has  swallowed  up  scores  of  lighter- 
colored  races,  the  Abyssinians,  Mandingoes,  Joloffs, 
Gallas,  etc.,  and  turned  them  all  black.  Why,  we  see 
the  same  physiological  effects  even  in  this  country:  the 
people  of  malarial  regions  grow  darker  in  color  than 
those  of  the  colder  sections;  already,  in  a  hundred 
years,  there  have  been  developed  marked  differences 
between  the  man  of  Maine  and  the  man  of  Louisiana; 
there  is  no  mistaking  one  for  the  other.  You  can  even 
observe  an  unlikeness  between  the  Canadian  and  the 
man  of  the  Ohio  valley.  Some  argue  that  the  white 
race  is  slowly  approximating  the  characteristics  of  the 
red  man;  this  is  the  more  marked  in  those  whose  ances 
tors  belonged  to  the  dark  Iberian  stock,  miscalled 
Celtic.  The  progress  toward  the  Indian  type  is  so 
rapid  in  these  that  one  is  often  inclined  to  ask,  even  in 
the  North,  whether  a  dark-skinned,  lank-haired,  black- 
eyed,  lantern-jawed  individual,  of  supposed  pure  Euro 
pean  blood,  has  not  a  large  contribution  of  the  Indian 
in  his  pedigree.  It  would  almost  seem  like  an  ancient 


60  DOC7^0R  IIUGUET. 

type  gravitating  rapidly  toward  its  original,  when 
restored  to  the  original  habitat." 

"  What  conclusions,  Doctor,"  asked  Berrisford,  "  do 
you  draw  from  all  these  facts?  " 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "  it  seems  to  me  that  all  men  are 
men,  and  none  of  them  monkeys;  and  the  rights  of  a 
man  should  not  depend  upon  the  shade  of  his  complex 
ion.  If  that  is  to  be  the  standard,  how,  let  me  ask,  arc 
you  going  to  graduate  it?  Will  you  argue  that  the 
fair-haired  Finlander  should  have  more  rights  than  the 
dark-haired  Frenchman,  or  the  tawny  Spaniard  or 
Italian?  Who  would  be  willing  to  proscribe  the  Por 
tuguese  as  not  white  men,  and  yet  perhaps  there  is  not 
a  single  individual  of  that  race  who  has  not  some  rem 
nant  of  Moorish,  and  therefore  negroloid,  blood  in  his 
veins. " 

"  And  do  you  think,"  said  Buryhill,  with  his  nose  in 
the  air,  and  a  frown  on  his  brow,  "  that  the  negroes 
should  have  the  same  political  rights  as  the  whites?" 

I  was  aware  that  I  was  advancing  upon  ticklish 
ground,  but  I  could  not  get  clear  of  my  logical  faculty, 
and  so  I  replied: 

"  Why  not?  Political  equality  does  not  imply  social 
equality,  or  physical  equality,  or  moral  equality,  or 
race  equality.  When  you  go  to  the  ballot-box  to  vote 
you  find  a  group  assembled  of  white  men,  originally 
of  different  nationalities  —  Yankee,  French,  German, 
Irish,  Scotch — of  different  complexions,  conditions, 
mental  power,  education  and  knowledge.  No  two  are 
alike;  no  two  are  equal  in  any  respect,  and  yet  they 
all  peacefully  unite  in  expressing  their  political  prefer- 


DOC  TOR  HUG  1 7E  T.  6  I 

ences.  The  right  to  participate  in  the  government,  in 
a  republic,  is  like  the  right  to  breathe  the  atmosphere. 
No  man  feels  degraded  because  the  air  he  inhales  has 
already  passed  through  the  lungs  of  his  fellow-man, 
differing  from  him  in  every  respect  and  condition.  We 
must  all  breathe  to  live,  and  we  must  all  vote  if  the 
republic  is  to  live.  Because  a  man  votes  beside  me  at 
the  polling-place,  it  does  not  follow  that  I  must  take  him 
into  my  house,  or  wed  him  to  my  daughter,  any  more 
than  those  results  follow  because  we  breathe  the  same 
air." 

I  observed  that  the  Colonel's  brow  grew  troubled; 
and  there  was  a  triumphant  sneer  on  Bury  hill's  face. 
There  was  a  movement  at  an  upper  window,  and  I 
caught  sight  of  a  dress  which  I  knew  belonged  to  Abi 
gail,  and  I  felt  sure  she  had  been  listening  to  the 
conversation. 

"  If  these  views  are  not  true,"  I  continued,  "  if  the 
right  to  participate  in  the  government  which  governs 
one  depends  upon  the  possession  of  European  blood, 
how  much  of  that  blood,  in  an  individual,  will  be  neces 
sary  to  give  him  the  standing  of  a  man?  How  small 
a  portion  of  negro  blood  will  deprive  him  of  his 
humanity?  Will  you  make  liberty  a  question  of  pre 
ponderance  of  ancestry?  Must  every  man  bring  his 
pedigree  to  the  polls?  If  the  major  portion  of  his 
blood  is  of  white  origin,  will  the  majority  rule  and  the 
man  be  accounted  a  white  man?  Or  will  you  hold  that 
if  it  can  be  shown  that  one  one-thousandth  part  of  his 
blood  is  African,  that  therefore  the  white  man  is  a  negro? 
In  twenty-one  generations  we  have  one  million  ances- 


62  DOCTOR  I1UGUET. 

tors  whose  blood  is  in  our  veins: — will  you  inaugurate 
a  new  gospel  of  human  rights,  and  declare  that  if  one 
of  those  million  ancestors  was  a  negro  he  was  prepotent 
enough  to  overwhelm  all  that  white  man's  blood  and 
reduce  the  citizen  to  a  brutish  condition,  unfit  to  be  free 
where  all  the  rest  are  free?  " 

"  Guid  God,  Doctor,"  cried  Major  McFettridge,  ex 
citedly,  "  ye  dinna  mean  to  say  that  a  mulatto  is  a  white 
man! " 

"  Not  in  the  judgment  of  society,"  I  replied;  "  but, 
Major,  you  know  that  society's  judgments  have  not 
always  been  wise  or  conclusive.  You  remember  how 
Robert  Burns,  when  invited,  because  of  his  resplendent 
genius,  to  a  gentleman's  house,  was  put,  when  dinner 
time  came,  to  eat  with  the  servants  in  the  kitchen;  and 
you  remember  how  his  outraged  soul  burst  forth  in 
immortal  verse: 

"  '  For  a'  that,  and  a'  that, 

Our  toil's  obscure  and  a'  that; 
The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp, 

The  man's  the  gold  for  a'  that. 
Then  let  us  pray  that  come  it  may, 

As  come  it  will  for  a'  that, 
The  sense  and  worth  o'er  a'  the  earth, 

May  bear  the  gree,  and  a'  that. 
For  a'  that,  and  a'  that, 

It's  coming  yet,  for  a'  that, 
That  man  to  man  the  world  o'er 

Shall  brothers  be  for  a'  that. '  " 

The  Major's  eyes  lighted  up  with  fine  enthusiasm  as 
he  listened  to  the  familiar  lines. 

"  True,  true,"  he  said,  in  a  softened  tone,  "but  there 
is  nae  comparison  between  the  Scotch  peasantry  and 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  63 

the  black  de'ils.     When  did  the  negro   plowmen   ever 
produce  a  Burns?" 

"  Granted,  Major,"  I  replied;  "  granted  that  the 
white  race  is  the  masterful  race  of  the  globe;  and,  in 
the  presence  of  their  tremendous  achievements,  no  man 
— black,  brown,  red  or  yellow  —  can  doubt  it.  They  are 
the  biggest-brained,  the  boldest-hearted,  the  most  cap 
able  subdivision  of  mankind  that  has  ever  dwelt  on  the 
planet.  I  grant  you  all  that.  But  are  we  to  do  jus 
tice  only  to  our  superiors,  or  our  equals?  If  so,  it 
yields  us  no  honor,  for  our  superiors  and  our  equals 
are  able  to  enforce  justice  from  us.  Generosity  can  only 
be  exercised  toward  those  less  fortunate  than  ourselves. 
Power  has  no  attribute  grander  than  the  god-like  in 
stinct  to  reach  down  and  lift  up  the  fallen.  If  we  can 
plainly  perceive  in  the  progress  of  humanity  the  move 
ment  of  a  great  Benevolence,  every  year  adding  to  the 
comfort  and  happiness  of  mankind,  why  should  we  not, 
to  the  extent  of  our  little  powers,  aid  Him  in  His  tre 
mendous  work?  How  divine  a  thought  is  it  that  we 
are  participating  in  the  purposes  and  work  of  the  Al 
mighty  One!  That,  as  he  has  dragged  man  up  from 
reptilian  barbarism  to  this  splendid,  this  august  era  of 
peace  and  love,  we  are  able  to  help  the  flagging  foot 
steps  of  the  laggards  and  stragglers  who  have  dropped 
behind  in  God's  great  march  !  In  such  a  work  we  be 
come  the  very  children  of  God  —  fired  with  his  zeal, 
illuminated  by  his  smile.  How  base  and  brutal  it 
would  be  if  we  were  willing  to  be  fed  with  all  the  count 
less  fruits  of  God's  beneficence,  and,  in  the  midst  of 
our  full  content,  commend  only  poison  to  the  lips  of 


64  DOCTOR  IIUGL'ET. 

those  whose  sole  offense  is  that  Heaven  has   not  given 
them  our  blessings!" 

I  had  risen  from  the  hammock  and  spoke  like  one 
exhorting.  Mary's  eyes  flashed  with  delight,  and  the 
Colonel's  face  was  a  study.  Pride  in  his  prospective 
son-in-law  contended  with  the  astonishment  with  which 
he  received  such  unheard-of  doctrines. 

Really,  Doctor,"  said  Buryhill,  with  a  sneer,  "  you 
should  have  been  a  preacher." 

"  Every  honest  man,"  I  replied,  "  who  perceives 
abuses  in  the  world,  should  be  a  preacher,  in  the  broad 
sense  of  the  word.  There  are,  of  course,  wolfish  natures, 
whose  only  instinct  is  to  sneak  and  leap  and  devour. 
To  these  men  mercy  is  a  mockery,  and  humanity  but 
another  name  for  food.  They  are  the  cannibals  of  civ 
ilized  life,  and  live  upon  their  fellows." 

Buryhill  grew  red  in  the  face,  and  his  eyes  glared  the 
rage  he  did  not  dare  to  speak;  but  I  felt  that  he  hated 
me  as  bitterly  as  I  despised  him. 

Major  McFettridge  was  silent.  The  appeal  to  his 
higher  nature  was  too  much  for  the  gallant  Scotchman. 
He  sat  lost  in  sober  thought,  until  his  cigar  went  out. 

"  But  seriously,  now,  Doctor,"  said  Major  Berrisford, 
"  you  don't  mean  to  say  that  we  should  not  protect 
ourselves  from  the  domination  of  a  horde  of  ignorant 
negroes,  led  by  poor  white  demagogues,  or  adventurers 
from  the  North?  Look  at  the  condition  they  brought 
the  Southern  States  to,  after  the  war,  under  the  carpet 
bag  regime,  when  plunder  was  the  first  object  and  the 
people  were  overwhelmed  with  bankruptcy.  You  are 
not  in  favor  of  another  Governor  Moses  regime }  I  hope?" 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  65 

"  Certainly  not,"  I  replied.  "  I  think  the  intellect  of 
the  South  should  rule  the  South;  it  will  not  be  well 
governed  unless  it  is  governed  by  its  best  and  wisest. 
But  there  are  many  ways  to  reach  this  end  besides 
murder.  The  present  system,  practiced  in  some  places, 
of  brutally  killing  a  man  because  he  attempts  to  peace 
fully  exercise  the  right  which  the  laws  of  the  land 
confer  upon  him,  is,  to  my  mind,  revolting  and  dread 
ful,  and  a  disgrace  to  the  Southern  people.  To  fill 
a  man  with  lead,  to  tear  his  vitals  to  pieces,  simply 
because  he  attempts  to  put  apiece  of  paper  in  the  bal 
lot-box,  when  the  law  says  he  shall  have  the  right  to 
do  so,  is  a  horrible  travesty  on  our  civilization  and 
Christianity;  and  I  am  glad  to  know  that  our  best  peo 
ple  repudiate  it.  It  is  the  work  of  ruffians,  of  low- 
down,  degraded  ruffians,  who  would  kill  white  men  as 
quickly  as  black  men,  if  public  opinion  made  it  safe  for 
them  to  do  so. " 

"  But  what  are  you  to  do?"  asked  Buryhill.  "  In 
many  places  the  negroes  are  in  a  majority,  and  if  you 
let  them  vote  they  will  govern,  and  experience  has 
shown  that  they  are  not  fit  to  govern." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,"  I  replied,  "  that  this  cun 
ning,  crafty,  long-headed  white  race,  which  has  domi 
nated  every  darker  people  it  has  come  in  contact  with, 
is  unable  to  control  a  horde  of  ignorant  black  men  with 
out  butchering  them?  How  do  they  control  their  own 
people?  Look  at  the  vast  populations  of  laboring  men 
in  the  cities  of  the  North.  They  have  the  ballot; 
,  they  are  united  by  a  sense  of  real  or  fancied  wrongs; 
they  enthusiastically  resolve  every  year  to  take  the 


66  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

government  into  their  own  hands;  they  are  the  vast 
majority.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  the  bankers  and 
brokers  and  lawyers  shooting  them  down  at  the 
polls?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  And  yet  the  professional 
classes  and  the  corporations,  comparatively  insignificant 
in  number,  always  rule  the  cities  and  the  States.  How 
do  they  do  it?  They  divide  up  the  laborers.  They 
buy  up  their  leaders.  They  set  them  to  battling  on 
side  issues.  They  adopt  what  the  philosophers  call 
'the  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection.'  They  be 
wilder  and  befuddle  them,  and  govern  them.  They 
establish  newspapers  among  them  to  direct  them;  and 
they  take  possession  of  them  very  much  as  the  negroes 
of  Africa  capture  monkeys.  They  leave  beer  for  them 
to  drink,  and  when  the  quadrumanous  little  fools  are 
pretty  well  overcome  by  intoxication,  one  negro  steps 
forward  and  takes  the  leader  by  the  hand;  the  imita 
tive  creatures  follow  this  example,  and  all  clasp  hands 
in  the  same  way,  and  the  colored  gentleman  leads  them 
all  off,  in  a  long  line,  happy  and  contented,  to  cap 
tivity.  If  the  South  desires  to  control  its  labor  vote, 
it  should  take  example  from  the  astute  North,  where 
politics  are  reduced  to  a  science.  But  firing  bullets 
into  their  lungs  and  stomachs  and  hearts!  Pah!  that 
is  brutal  and  barbarous,  and  marks  an  undeveloped 
state  of  society.  In  fact,  force  is  always  the  remedy  of 
men  who  cannot  reason.  You  kill  a  man  because  Nature 
has  not  given  you  brains  enough  to  convince  him. 
What  a  lovely  time  there  would  be  in  one  of  those 
great  Northern  cities  if  the  wealthier  classes  turned  out, 
on  election  day,  and  murdered  a  few  workingmen 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  67 

for  trying  to  vote!  How  much  of  that  town  would 
be  up  in  the  air  in  the  form  of  smoke  before  night 
fall  ?  How  many  of  those  intelligent  bankers  and 
brokers,  and  lawyers,  and  railroad  presidents,  would 
be  ready  to  adorn  a  grave-yard  before  supper-time? 
But  let  us  go  a  step  farther.  Let  us  suppose  that  the 
ruling  class  not  only  tried  to  keep  the  workingmen 
from  voting  by  murdering  them,  but  went  so  far  as  to 
shut  up  the  school-houses  and  deny  them  education, 
and  employ  the  whole  power  of  the  civilized  state  to 
make  them  brutes  and  savages?  What  a  hcll-upon- 
earth  would  they  prepare  for  themselves!  What  a 
cheerful  place  that  would  be  for  a  cultured  gentleman, 
of  quiet  and  refined  tastes,  to  reside  in,  where  the 
vast  majority  of  the  people  around  him,  male  and 
female,  were  uncivilized  monsters,  as  enlightened  as 
gorillas,  and  as  bloodthirsty  as  thugs.  Why,  the 
shallowest-pated  fool  in  the  whole  North  would  under 
stand  that  such  a  course  would  bring  down  the  entire 
fabric  of  society  in  undistinguishable  confusion  and 
ruin.  And  yet  this  is  just  what  the  inhabitants  of  some 
portions  of  the  South  are  doing.  The  negroes  are  the 
most  patient  and  forbearing  and  gentle  people  in  the 
world. 

"  Imagine  a  body  of  white  slaves,  during  our  late  civil 
war,  in  charge  of  the  plantations,  with  the  women  and 
children  at  their  mercy,  while  their  masters  were  at  the 
front  fighting  to  decide  whether  their  slavery  should 
end  or  should  continue  forever!  If  they  had  been 
Englishmen,  or  Irishmen,  or  Germans  — or  even  Scotch 
men,  Major  —  the  heavens  would  have  been  lurid 


68  DOCTOR  IIVGUET. 

with  midnight  flames,  and  the  Southern  soldiers  would 
have  had  to  rush  home  to  find  the  calcined  bones  of 
their  best  beloved  shining  white  in  the  ashes  of  their 
habitations.  Nor  was  this  from  lack  of  native  courage 
on  the  part  of  the  blacks;  for,  when  armed  by  the 
Northern  generals,  and  placed  in  the  field  of  battle, 
they  fought  like  demons.  No;  it  was  natural  good 
ness,  and  it  should  make  every  Southern  father  and 
husband  feel  more  kindly  to  these  poor  black  creatures, 
who  had  everything  at  their  mercy  and  refused  to  shed 
a  drop  of  white  blood,  or  bring  shame  and  despair  to 
the  face  of  a  single  white  woman.  The  history  of  the 
human  family  does  not  afford  another  illustration  of  like 
forbearance  under  like  circumstances." 

"  Vera  true  —  vera  true,"  said  the  Major;  "  I  have 
often  thought  of  that  mysel'.  Indeed,  they  raised  the 
vera  crops  to  feed  us  while  we  fought  to  keep  them  in 
slavery.  And  vera  well  they  kenned  what  was  going 
on,  too." 

"  No,  gentlemen,"  I  said;  "  whatever  may  be  our 
prejudices,  every  fair-minded  man  must  see  that  the 
true  course  for  the  South  is  to  educate  and  lift  up  this 
people.  We  must  have  a  labor-force  that  will  till  our 
fields  in  the  face  of  our  blazing  sun  and  miasma.  Where 
can  we  find  one  so  sturdy,  so  patient,  so  tractable  as 
the  negroes?  How  long  do  you  think  white  men  — 
foreigners  —  would  toil  for  so  small  a  reward?  Let  us 
be  kindly  and  just  and  gentle  with  these  unfortunate 
people.  If  you  had  visited  the  Northern  interior  cities, 
as  I  have  done,  and  seen  how  education  and  good 
living  are  modifying  the  very  forms  and  features  of 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  69 

the  race,  even  where  the  skin  retains  its  original  black 
ness,  you  would  see  that  America  is  to  do  some 
good  even  to  the  least  fortunate  of  her  inhabitants. 
I  have  seen  black  men  there  with  features  as  perfect 
and  as  regular  as  the  most  cultivated  Caucasian;  and 
the  streets  of  a  Northern  city,  of  a  Sunday  afternoon, 
are  as  gay  as  a  many-colored  garden,  with  the  handsome 
daughters  of  Ham,  of  all  shades  of  complexion.  The 
truth  is,  that  when  you  refine  the  mind  you  refine  the 
features.  Take  brutality  out  of  the  brain,  and  it  leaves 
the  lips.  Raise  the  heart  and  soul  of  man,  and  the  bridge 
of  his  nose  rises.  If  the  negroes  progress  as  rapidly 
in  the  next  century  as  they  have  done  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  they  will  be  as  handsome  as  any  race  on  earth. 
It  is  the  province  of  this  great  continent,  reserved  by 
God  for  that  purpose,  to  lift  up  all  the  races  of  Europe  to 
heights  of  perfection  never  dreamed  of  by  our  ancestors; 
and  who  will  be  mean  enough  to  grudge  a  little  of  the 
universal  advancement  to  our  poor,  dusky  co-toilers 
from  Africa,  who  need  it  so  much  more  than  we  do?" 
"  Well,  well,  Doctor,"  said  the  Colonel,  advancing 
and  taking  me  by  the  hand,  "  you  have  given  me  some 
new  ideas;  your  enthusiasm  for  humanity  is  noble; 
but  you  must  excuse  an  old  man  like  me  if  I  cannot 
overcome  in  an  hour  the  prejudices  of  a  life-time. 
But  come,  gentlemen,  I  hear  the  summons  for  supper. 
And  here  is  my  daughter  to  show  us  the  way." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   TEMPTATION. 

OEVERAL  days  passed  after  this  discussion,  and  I 
O  observed,  with  some  surprise,  that  none  of  our 
neighbors  dropped  in  for  the  afternoon  chat  on  the 
piazza.  I  grew  tired  looking  at  the  magnolia  trees  and 
listening  to  the  chirruping  song  of  the  birds.  I 
yawned  and  took  to  reading.  I  noticed,  too,  that  Miss 
Mary  seemed  troubled;  but  Abigail  met  me  with  shin 
ing  face  and  a  peculiar  light  in  her  eyes,  and  all  the 
negroes  on  the  plantation  smiled  and  bowed  very  low 
whenever  they  met  me.  The  Colonel  was  the  same  as 
ever,  but  he  did  not  renew  the  discussion  upon  the 
negro  question.  At  last  I  could  not  fail  to  see  that 
something  had  gone  wrong;  and  so  I  said  to  Mary,  one 
day,  as  she  sat  beside  me  with  a  book  in  her  hand: 

"  Mary,  what's  the  matter?  Why  do  Major  McFett- 
ridge  and  Captain  Braynton  and  the  rest  not  call  as 
usual?  And  there  is  some  trouble- in  your  eyes,  too, 
Mary?" 

"  Well,  I  suppose  your  radical  and  liberal  views,  as 
to  the  negroes,"  she  said,  "  have  offended  our  neigh 
bors,  and  the  more  they  think  over  them  the  more  they 
dislike  them.  I  hear,  too,  through  some  of  the  house 
servants  (your  conversation  on  the  porch  was  over 
heard),  that  their  friends,  servants  on  other  plantations, 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  7  I 

inform  them  that  Buryhill  has  been  going  around  telling 
the  white  people  that  you  are  a  fanatical  advocate  of 
the  negroes,  and  want  to  go  to  Congress  to  put  the 
government  of  the  country  in  the  hands  of  the  blacks; 
that  you  are  indeed  a  Republican,  in  disguise,  of  the 
most  radical  kind.  All  this,  of  course,  is  terribly  in 
jurious  to  your  chances  of  success." 

"  But,  Mary,"  I  said,  "  you  heard  the  discussion.  Do 
you  think  my  opinions  deserved  any  such  denuncia 
tion?" 

"  Certainly  not,"  she  replied,  warmly;  "  I  heard  every 
word,  and  you  were  clearly  right,  and  —  and  —  I  was 
proud  of  you.  But  even  the  truth  must  not  always 
be  spoken,  when  it  runs  counter  to  prejudices  which 
cannot  be  overthrown.  And  you  know  our  people  — 
kind,  and  noble,  and  generous  as  they  are,  upon  all 
other  subjects,  they  have  an  ineradicable  feeling  against 
the  negroes,  inherited  from  that  day  when  the  planters' 
wives,  with  pale  faces,  told  their  children  of  the  dan 
ger  of  a  slave  insurrection.  The  negro  has  been,  in 
deed,  the  bete  noir  of  the  white  people,  from  childhood. 
Individually  the  planter  would  treat  any  of  them  with 
kindness,  nay,  with  affection;  but  collectively  they  are 
the  incubus  that  site  upon  his  breast  when  he  sleeps;  the 
hobgoblin  that  is  ready  to  start  out  at  him  from  every 
bush.  The  strongest  instinct  he  has  is  that  they  must 
be  put  down,  kept  down;  —  shot  down  if  they  cannot 
be  kept  down  in  any  other  way." 

"  You  do  not  seem  to  share  that  feeling,  Mary  ?  " 

"  No,"  she  replied;  "  I  did  to  some  extent,  until  I  list 
ened  to  your  eloquent  words;  but  now  I  see  that  the  white 


72  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

man  has  no  reason  to  fear  that  the  black  man  will  surpass 
him  in  the  battle  of  life.  But  you  remember  that  our 
neighbors,  while  men  of  fair,  average  intelligence,  are 
not  readers  or  thinkers,  or  philosophers  ;  and  when  you 
talk  to  them  about  the  possibility,  as  a  scientific  theo 
rem,  of  the  white  race  being  descended  from  an  abori 
ginal  negro  stock  living  in  Europe,  many  thousands  of 
years  ago,  they  cannot  follow  you.  They  take  your 
reasoning,  upon  scientific  probabilities,  as  a  bare  state 
ment  of  fact,  that  the  whites  were  originally  black.  And 
when  they  think  it  all  over,  at  home,  away  from  the 
magnetism  of  your  voice  and  presence,  they  will,  I 
fear,  — pardon  me,  —  they  will  regard  it  as  ridiculous, 
or  —  worse  —  as  high-treason  against  our  Caucasian 
blood  and  lineage." 

"  Do  you  so  regard  it,  Mary  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,"  she  said  ;  "  to  one  who  has  read  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species  and  Descent  of  Man  no  such  proposi 
tion  can  appear  absurd.  Both  science  and  religion  teach 
us  that  '  God  made  of  one  blood  all  the  races  of  men  that 
dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth. '  The  white  race  must  have 
come  from  somewhere  ;  it  must  have  been  developed 
— if  the  theory  of  evolution  is  true  —  out  of  some  inferior 
branch  of  the  human  family;  and  it  is  not  unreason 
able  to  suppose  that  it  may  have  received  the  shape 
of  its  skull  from  an  outlying  colony  of  the  negro  race, 
ages  before  it  fell  under  those  climatic  influences  which 
changed  —  asyou  suggest  —  the  color  of  its  skin.  All 
nature  teaches  us  that  God  does  not  move  per  saltinn, 
by  a  leap  or  jump,  but  that  His  highest  creations  creep 
slowly  up  out  of  lower  forms,  and  retain  in  their  con- 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


73 


formation  the  history  of  their  ascent.  But,  apart  from 
all  this, "  she  continued,  and  she  spoke  timidly  and  hes 
itatingly,  "  there  is  another  question, — pardon  me, — 
was  it  wise  to  have  uttered  your  inmost  thoughts  as  you 
did  ?  I  might  say  with  Hamlet,  your  favorite,  '  All  of 
which,  sir,  though  I  most  powerfully  and  potently 
believe,  yet  I  hold  it  not  honesty  to  have  it  thus  set 
down.'  I  fear  that  you  have  lived  so  isolated  a  life, 
immersed  in  your  library,  mingling  but  little  with  the 
people,  that  you  do  not  appreciate  the  depth  and  inten 
sity  of  the  white  prejudice  against  and  fearof  the  negroes. 
I  have  heard  it  at  my  father's  table  ever  since  my  child 
hood,  and  I  therefore  can  comprehend  it." 

"  But,  Mary,  what  would  you  have  me  do  ?  "  I  replied. 
"  Surely  you  do  not  advise  me  to  encourage  my  fellow 
citizens  in  a  course  which  I  know  to  be  most  destruct 
ive  of  their  true  interests.  Now,  if  I  went  out,  and 
talked  these  things  upon  the  platform,  I  might  over 
come  the  unreasoning  bigotry  to  which  you  allude." 

"  No,  no,"  she  said;  "  you  would  destroy  yourself 
and  all  your  future  capacity  for  usefulness.  You  would 
be  hated,  despised,  persecuted  ;  your  utterances  would 
be  distorted,  exaggerated  ;  you  would  be  regarded  as 
a  demagogue  or  a  lunatic." 

"  But,"  I  said,  "  some  one  must  die  for  the  truth. 
Some  one  must  gather  the  spears  into  his  breast,  like 
Arnold  von  Winkelried  at  the  battle  of  Sempach,  that 
over  his  dead  body  the  forces  of  liberty  may  rush  in  to 
victory." 

"  But  can  you,  by  your  own  ruin,"  she  said,  "  over 
throw  error?  This  is  not  the  battle  of  Sempach, 


74  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

This  is  the  age-long  conflict  of  truth  and  falsehood. 
And  think  of  the  grief  and  sorrow  of  those  who  love 
you" —  and  her  eyes  grew  moist — "  when  they  see  you 
cast  yourself  away  in  an  unavailing  struggle!  No; 
no;  it  seems  to  me  that  you  must  obtain  position  and 
influence  first,  and  then  gradually  mold  the  minds  of 
men  to  your  views  of  right.  Remember  this  is  a  race 
conflict,  and  the  contentions  of  races  with  one  another 
are  always  more  bitter  than  the  battles  of  rival  religions, 
for  every  physical  attribute  which  separates  the  com 
batants  accentuates  the  ferocity  of  the  struggle.  In  a 
battle  of  the  birds  and  beasts  only  the  bats,  hideous, 
misshapen  creatures,  can  be  indifferent.  One  must  go, 
right  or  wrong,  with  his  class." 

"  Then,"  said  I,  "  if  one  side  is  right  and  the  other 
wrong,  there  must  be  an  eternal  division  between 
them;  if  wrong  has  the  majority,  it  is  to  triumph  for 
ever.  No  voice  can  be  raised  for  the  fallen.  No  allies 
can  march  from  one  camp  to  the  other.  Justice  is  to 
be  terrorized  by  fear.  No,  no;  my  dear  Mary,  that 
cannot  be  right." 

"  Remember,"  she  said,  "  the  course  of  that  wisest  of 
men,  Francis  Bacon.  He  did  not  cast  himself  head 
long  against  the  adamantine  wall  of  popular  bigotry 
and  ignorance.  He  bowed  to  the  tempest,  but  he 
never  abandoned  his  views  of  right.  He  saw  that  truth 
had  to  be  'insinuated'  —  that  was  his  phrase  —  into 
the  minds  of  men,  that  '  that  old  arbitrator,  Time,'  was 
a  mighty  factor  in  the  correction  of  abuses;  that  prog 
ress  selected  the  brain  tenements  in  which  it  would 
dwell,  and  marked  them  off  with  white  clalk.  He  has 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


75 


vastly  advanced  the  world,  but  he  has  therein  imitated 
nature,  which,  as  he  said,  '  innovateth  greatly,  but  yet 
by  degrees  scarce  to  be  perceived."1 

"  Why,  my  dear  Mary,"  I  said,  "  you  talk  like  a 
philosopher.  Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a 
—  hypocrite  ! " 

"  No,  no,"  she  said,  earnestly,  "  not  a  hypocrite, 
bul  a  statesman.  A  true  statesman  is  one  who  adapts 
righteousness  to  circumstances;  as  the  Swiss  peasant 
builds  his  house,  irregularly  it  may  be,  but  strongly, 
against  the  crooked  inequalities  of  the  mountain.  He 
could  not  erect  a  symmetrical  Greek  temple  upon  the 
face  of  the  precipice,  but  he  secures  an  humble  home, 
where  love  and  peace  may  find  shelter  in  the  midst  of 
Alpine  tempests. 

"  And  think,"  she  continued,  "of  the  folly  of  throwing 
away  the  glorious  career  we  had  determined  upon  for 
the  sake  of  so  wretched  a  race  as  the  negroes.  When 
I  heard  you  pouring  forth  that  stream  of  eloquence  the 
other  day  on  the  porch,  my  heart  lighted  up  with  joy, 
for  I  saw  you,  in  my  imagination,  in  the  Senate  cham 
ber,  with  the  whole  world  listening  to  your  burning 
periods." 

"  Yes,  my  dear  temptress,"  I  replied,  "  but  under 
your  guidance  I  could  not  fulfill  the  grand  picture  of 
the  English  poet: 

"  '  The  applause  of  listening  senates  to  command, 

The  threats  of  pain  and  ruin  to  despise ; 
To  scatter  plenty  o'er  a  smiling  land, 
And  read  your  history  in  a  nation's  eyes.' 

I    would   simply  mislead   the    people    by    confirming 


76  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

them  in  their  prejudices;  and  while  they  praised  me 
now  they  would  curse  me  hereafter.  The  people  need 
prophets,  not  panders  —  bold-hearted  men,  ready  to 
fight  the  surging  torrents  of  popular  error,  rather  than 
mealy-mouthed,  sweet-tongued,  empty-hearted  dema 
gogues,  who  will  float,  like  rotten  drift-wood,  along 
the  ill-smelling,  turbid  current  of  the  world's  common 
delusions.  The  people  need: 

"  '  Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill ; 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy  ; 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will ; 

Men  who  have  honor;  men  who  will  not  lie  ; 
Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagogue, 

And  damn  his  treacherous  flatteries  without  winking; 
Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  fog 

In  public  duty,  and  in  private  thinking: 
For  while  the  rabble,  with  their  thumb-worn  creeds, 

Their  large  professions  and  their  little  deeds, 
Mingle  in  selfish  strife,  lo !   Freedom  weeps, 

Wrong  rules  the  land,  and  waiting  Justice  sleeps.'" 

"  But,  my  dear  friend,"  she  replied,  "  while  all  that 
is  true,  from  a  poet's  standpoint,  it  seems  to  me  that 
in  a  republic  the  statesmen  must  represent  the  race  and 
sectional  bigotries,  or  they  will  not  represent  anything. 
The  only  hope  for  the  republic  is  that  the  people,  being 
free  to  advance,  will  gradually  move  forward  out  of 
their  errors.  The  public  school  system  and  the  enlight 
ened  spirit  of  our  age  are  gradually  lifting  all  men  up  into 
higher  and  purer  levels  of  thought.  In  that  lies  the 
hope  of  mankind.  One  man  can  do  nothing." 

"  One  man  can  do  much,"  I  said.  "  Look  at  the  his 
tory  of  the  anti-slavery  movement.  In  1/83  six  obscure 
Quakers  met  in  London  and  organized  the  first  society 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


77 


which,  in  all  the  history  of  mankind,  had  been  created  to 
protest  against  the  slave  trade  and  labor  for  its  destruc 
tion.  In  the  same  year  there  was  a  lawsuit  in  London 
against  certain  ship-owners  for  the  throwing  into  the  sea 
and  the  drowning  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  Africans, 
by  the  master  of  a  slave-ship,  to  defraud  the  under 
writers.  No  penalty  was  inflicted,  because  they  were 
slaves  !  And  yet,  in  twenty-four  years,  the  move 
ment,  inaugurated  by  the  six  Quakers,  had  grown  so 
strong —  in  the  consciences  and  souls  of  men  —  that  a 
bill  passed  Parliament  to  abolish  the  slave  trade.  In 
twenty-three  years  more  every  Christian  nation  in 
Europe  and  America  had  prohibited  the  commerce  in 
human  beings;  and  in  thirty-five  years  more  slavery 
itself  had  ceased  to  exist  in  nearly  every  country  on 
earth.  All  this  horrible  prejudice  against  the  negro; 
this  desire  to  drive  him  from  the  ballot-box  with 
shot-guns;  this  passionate  and  vehement  deter 
mination  to  keep  him  down,  to  trample  him  in  the 
mud,  is  but  a  survival  of  that  old-time  feeling 
when  an  English  court  and  jury  could  justify  the 
murder  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  human  beings 
because  their  skins  were  darker  than  that  of  the 
average  Englishman.  Why  should  I  not  follow  the 
example  of  those  six  obscure  Quakers  of  1783?  Why 
should  I  not  inaugurate  a  movement  in  behalf  of  fair 
play  and  Christianity,  and  throw  all  my  wealth,  and 
intellect,  and  station  on  the  side  of  justice  and  right? 
God  has  not  swept  away  slavery  in  nearly  all  the  lands 
of  the  earth,  from  frozen  Russia  to  burning  Brazil,  for 
nothing;  he  has  not  been  busy,  through  all  these  cen- 


7  8  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

turies,  by  his  cherubim  and  seraphim,  winning  battles 
for  liberty,  drowning  great  armadas  in  terrible  tempests, 
and  overruling  even  the  passions  and  follies  of  men  in 
behalf  of  mankind,  to  permit  this  fair  land  of  America, 
under  the  very  shadow  of  the  stars  and  stripes,  to  make 
her  own  soil  bloody  with  the  heart's  blood  of  men 
whose  sole  offense  is  that  they  desire  to  exercise  their 
legal  and  constitutional  right  to  participate  in  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  republic.  No,  no!  It  is  not  natural;  it 
is  not  human;  it  is  not  Christian;  it  is  not  American. 
Someone  defined  the  Turkish  government  as  an  absolute 
monarchy,  tempered  by  assassination.  Here  we  have 
a  free  republic,  subordinated  to  and  modified  by  mur 
der!  A  commingling  of  free  ballots  and  bullets!  Free 
thought  and  shot-guns!  The  very  devils  in  hell  might 
grin  over  such  a  combination.  " 

Mary  said: 

"  I  love  to  hear  you  talk  thus,  when  you  become  ex 
cited;  but  we  women  are  not,  as  a  rule,  subject  to  such 
enthusiasms.  God  made  the  males  for  leaders  and 
fighters.  Perhaps  as  a  matter  of  abstract  right  you  are 
correct.  I  think  you  are.  But  let  us  look  at  the  prac 
tical  aspects  of  the  question.  By  the  course  you  have 
suggested,  you  would  doom  yourself  to  private  life  for 
ever;  for,  right  or  wrong,  the  white  race  is  determined 
to  rule  this  land,  or  perish  in  the  attempt.  In  private 
life  you  can  do  nothing.  You  have  not  the  command 
ing  pedestal  to  speak  from.  Your  voice  would  sound  as 
from  a  cellar.  You  might  become,  to  use  Bacon's 
phrase,  'some  sorry  book-maker;'  but  your  eloquence 
would  pass  away  from  earth  unused.  If,  on  the  other 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  jg 

hand,  you  could  speak  as  the  mouth-piece  of  South 
Carolina,  with  our  noble  State  and  all  its  glorious  mem 
ories  behind  you,  you  would  command  the  attention  of 
mankind;  and  you  might  do  more  good  for  the  inter 
ests  you  have  at  heart  in  that  way  than  in  any  other. 
You  might  be  able  to  modify  public  sentiment  without 
losing  your  hold  on  public  confidence." 

How  sweet  is  the  voice  of  flattery  when  it  sounds 
from  the  lips  of  those  we  love!  While  I  knew  what 
was  right,  my  sybaritic  devotion  to  peace  and  lux 
ury  echoed  in  my  heart  the  sentiments  of  my  beloved. 
I  feared  the  dislike  of  the  vulgar.  I  could  not  face 
public  ostracism.  I  was  rather  proud  of  my  oratorical 
gifts,  or  the  warm  flow  of  language  which  I  mistook  for 
such,  and  I  hungered  for  the  applause  of  my  race. 
The  poor  blacks!  What  did  they  know  of  eloquence? 
Would  they  even  be  grateful  for  any  sacrifices  I  might 
make  for  them?  And,  after  all,  is  any  man  justified  in 
following  the  emotions  of  his  heart  against  the  dictates 
of  his  common  sense?  Is  not  that  the  final  arbiter  of 
action?  Did  not  great  enthusiasms  lead  to  the  stake 
and  the  scaffold?  Who  was  to  draw  the  line  between 
unregulated  fanaticism  and  insanity?  All  this  I  said 
to  myself,  but  away  back  in  the  depths  of  my  inner 
consciousness,  in  that  part  of  me  where  the  God-in-man 
dwells,  there  was  a  still,  small  voice  that  whispered: 
"  All  this  is  reasoned  well,  but  you  are  a  coward!  You 
do  not  dare  to  use  your  gifts  for  the  purpose  for  which 
they  were  given  you.  You  are  a  recreant — you  are  a 
nideringi  " 


8o  DOCTOR  IIVGUET. 

And  I  was  ashamed  of  myself,  even  while  I  boasted, 
and  my  love  praised  me. 

"  I  have  been  talking  to  father,"  Mary  continued, — 
she  had  been  attentively  watching  my  face, —  "  and  he 
says  that  Buryhill's  stories  will  so  prejudice  the  Demo 
crats  against  you,  that  you  will  not  be  able  to  carry  the 
convention,  unless "  And  she  paused. 

"  Unless  what?" 

"  Unless  you  can  make  a  speech,  and  publish  it  in  the 
papers,  in  which  you  will  take  ground  that  this  is  a 
white-man's  government  and  must  be  ruled  by  white 
men,  or  something  of  that  sort." 

I  winced. 

"  It  is  hard  enough,"  I  replied,  "  to  suppress  one's 
convictions,  even  with  good  intentions  as  to  the  future, 
but  to  belie  them;  to  denounce  them;  to  strengthen 
the  very  evils  one  is  opposed  to,  that  is  too  much  to 
ask.  Not  that  I  do  not  believe  that  the  white  man's 
intelligence  shall  rule  this  State;  but  that  is  not  what 
the  politicians  mean.  It  is  not  white  domination  they 
seek,  but  negro  degradation;  they  are  not  satisfied  to 
rule  the  blacks  —  they  must  ruin  them;  not  content  to 
deny  the  colored  people  leadership,  they  would  reduce 
them  to  beasts.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  whole  people, 
but  of  a  faction,  who  rise  to  office  on  the  shoulders  of 
public  prejudice.  They  are  not  teachers  of  the  people, 
but  betrayers  of  humanity.  I  shall  remain  in  private 
life." 

"  But  for  the  sake  of  your  own  genius,"  said  Mary, 
pleadingly,  laying  her  hand  upon  my  arm,  "  for  the 
sake  of  your  friends  —  for  my  sake,  you  must  make  the 


DOCTOR  HUGUET,  8 1 

sacrifice.  What  is  it  to  bow  to  the  inevitable — to  sub 
mit  to  the  unconquerable  —  to  yield  to  the  force  of 
public  prejudice  and  thereby  rise  to  a  position  of  incal 
culable  power  for  good?  You  will  not  strengthen  the 
race  prejudice.  It  is  invulnerable  now.  It  will  triumph 
with  you  or  without  you.  It  is  simply  a  question 
whether  you  will  stand  upon  it  and  direct  it,  or  be 
crushed  under  it.  Is  it  better  to  step  aside  and  let 
vulgar,  merciless  demagogues  rule  the  hour,  or  lend  to 
the  cause  of  the  state  your  cultured  mind  and  your 
benevolent  heart?" 

Never  did  any  man  endure  the  pressure  of  stronger 
pleading.  I  knew  in  my  own  heart  of  hearts  that  I 
could  not  reform  evil  by  yielding  to  it  —  by  indorsing 
it.  And  yet  all  my  poor  human  frailty  cried  out  on 
the  side  of  my  ambition  —  vanity,  pride,  affection,  all 
wrought  in  me.  I  looked  in  the  bright  eyes  and  ex 
cited  face  of  the  woman  who  loved  me,  whose  sense  of 
right  was  even  darkened  by  her  love  for  me;  I  caught 
the  spell  of  her  enthusiam;  I  took  her  hand;  I  yielded. 
I  promised  to  abandon  my  convictions  and  throw  the 
weight  of  my  station  and  my  intelligence  against  the 
poor  wretches  who  were  already  borne  down  to  the 
earth  by  the  accumulated  weight  of  their  misfortunes. 

And  something,  away  within  me  —  a  hundred  miles 
within  me  —  sneered  at  me  and  reviled  me  —  yea,  spat 
at  me.  And  in  my  heart  of  hearts  I  stood  at  the  altar 
of  my  soul,  with  downcast  head  and  shamed  face,  sore 
and  sorry,  humiliated  and  wretched.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  I  was  an  outcast  from  myself — that  my  conscience 
spurned  me  out  of  its  doors  into  the  wilderness. 

6 


82  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

But  my  fair  and  lovely  and  innocent  temptress,  who 
had  led  me  away  from  my  higher  nature,  through  excess 
of  admiration  and  affection,  rejoiced  and  was  happy, 
even  to  tears;  and  she  hurried  away  to  tell  her  father 
the  glad  tidings. 

And  I — well,  it  seemed  to  me  that  every  day  I  beat 
down  my  conscience  with  a  club  until  it  bled;  and  every 
blow  I  struck  it  hurt  my  heart ;—  I,  making  excuse  that 
I  must  return  to  my  library  to  prepare  my  speech,  hur 
ried  away  to  C— — ,  an  utterly  wretched  man. 

It  was  night  when  I  reached  my  residence.  Ben 
admitted  me.  The  quiet  and  peace  of  the  house  was 
grateful  to  me.  I  hurried  to  my  bed-chamber. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    VISION. 

"  Angels  and  ministers  of  grace, 
Defend  me!"  — Hamlet. 

I  FELL  asleep, —  fanned  by  a  gentle  night  breeze, 
laden  with  the  perfume  of  flowers.  My  last  glance 
was  upon  my  beautiful  and  luxurious  room,  as  my 
sense  of  discomfort  and  distress  gave  place  at  length 
to  dreamless  and  profound  slumber. 

I  must  have  drifted  thus  peacefully  over  the  silent 
waters  of  oblivion  for  some  hours,  for  it  was  early 
when  I  retired. 

I  awakened  with  a  start.  There  is  no  doubt  I  was 
awake.  No  noise  disturbed  me;  but  there  was,  within 
my  brain  and  in  all  my  quickly  pulsating  blood-vessels, 
that  inexplicable  sense  of  a  presence  which  so  many 
have  felt.  Never  before  had  I  experienced  such  a  sen 
sation.  I  was  alarmed  and  felt  as  if  I  was  beneath  the 
stroke  of  some  impending  danger. 

A  bright  light  covered  all  the  eastern  part  of  the 
room.  I  remember  I  was  sufficiently  collected  in  mind 
to  study  it  carefully.  It  was  neither  sun-light  nor 
lamp-light.  It  was  not  a  glare,  but  a  softened  glow. 
It  seemed  like  a  thing  —  a  substance  —  a  luminous 
mist,  through  which  I  could  dimly  perceive  the  wall 

and  the  outlines  of  the  articles  of  furniture.      At  first  it 

83 


84  DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 

had  covered  with  equal  effulgence  all  the  eastern  part 
of  the  room,  reaching  nearly  to  where  I  lay.  But  as  I 
looked  a  change  came  over  it.  It  receded  toward  the 
wall,  and,  at  the  same  time,  seemed  to  gather  in 
greater  brightness  toward  one  central  point. 

As  I  gazed  intently  upon  this  spot,  to  my  extreme 
astonishment,  I  perceived  that  the  light  was  slowly 
taking  upon  itself  the  outlines  of  a  human  head  and 
face;  vaguely  at  first,  but  gradually  growing  more  and 
more  plain,  until  at  last  the  lines  of  the  countenance 
glowed  with  great  distinctness.  It  was  a  face  painted 
in  light — I  might  almost  say,  in  fire.  A  marvelous 
face!  A  face  never  to  be  forgotten.  A  face  I  had 
never  seen  before.  I  had  often  thought  how  much  of 
diverse  character  and  meaning  could  be  implanted  on 
the  few  square  inches  of  the  human  countenance;  but 
here  was  a  face  that  transcended  my  highest  dream  of 
all  such  possibilities. 

It  was  a  massive  head.  The  forehead  was  broad  — 
very  broad  —  high  and  serene.  Beneath  it  glowed 
wonderful  orbs  that  looked  as  if  they  had  sounded  all 
depths  of  thought  and  feeling  —  even  to  the  dreadful 
verge  of  despair.  There  was  in  them  infinite  power, 
sorrow,  kindliness  and  compassion;  and  yet  it  was  a 
strong  face;  the  mouth  mobile,  but  the  chin  square. 
The  face  was  very  fair;  the  hair  bright  golden,  falling 
in  masses  to  the  shoulders,  and  from  it  radiated  lumin 
ous  beams,  pulsating  and  ever  moving,  like  the  throb 
bing  rays  of  the  aurora  in  the  lands  of  polar  snow.  This 
was  the  source  of  the  light  that  illumined  the  whole 
room. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  85 

I  had  never  beheld,  anywhere,  any  picture  of  this 
countenance,  and  yet  something  within  me  whispered 
to  me: 

"  This  is  THE  CHRIST  !  " 

As  I  gazed,  awe-struck  and  motionless,  the  eyes, 
which  had  been  fixed  on  me,  moved  slowly  from  side 
to  side,  and  I  was  then  able  to  withdraw  my  fascinated 
eye-balls  from  the  countenance  of  the  vision  and  look 
at  its  surroundings.  As  I  did  so  I  rose  terrified  and 
awe-stricken  half-way  from  my  couch. 

Around  the  face,  just  outside  the  pulsating  nimbus, 
there  seemed  to  be  a  dark,  moving  mass,  in  great  and, 
apparently,  endless  circles.  The  trembling  light  from 
the  hair  beat  over  its  margin,  but  it  was  some  time 
before  I  could  discern  what  it  was.  To  my  extreme 
astonishment  I  at  last  perceived  that  it  was  made 
up  of  millions  of  dark  hands,  all  clasped  in  the  atti 
tude  o£  prayer,  and  all  directed  toward  The  Christ. 
Something  within  me  told  me  that  they  were  the  sup 
plicating  hands  of  negroes.  They  were  of  all  sizes 
and  shades  of  darkness,  from  ebon  black  to  those  no 
browner  than  the  hands  of  the  peasants  of  southern 
Europe.  There  were  the  plump  hands  of  children, 
the  tapering  hands  of  women,  the  coarse,  rude  hands 
of  workmen,  seamed  and  calloused  with  toil;  the  gnarled 
and  knotted  hands  of  decrepid  old  men  and  feeble 
women.  All  were  bent  appealingly  toward  the  central 
figure,  and  they  moved,  with  a  continual  movement,  as 
if  they  sought  to  reach  and  touch  Him,  but  could  not. 
The  walls  of  the  room  afforded  no  limit  to  the  sight — ; 
it  was  an  universe  of  hands,  shading  off  into  infinity. 


86  DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 

The  great,  slowly-moving  eyes  regarded  me  again 
with  a  look  of  melancholy  reproach,  and  then  swept 
that  vast  circle  of  piteous  appeal.  Two  bright  tears 
flowed  slowly  down  the  fair  face;  the  lips  parted,  and, 
in  a  voice  sweeter  than  the  sound  cf  rippling  waters, 
the  vision  spake: 

"  THESE,  TOO,  ARE  MY  CHILDREN.  FOR  THEM, 
ALSO,  I  DIED  ON  THE  CROSS  !  " 

Scarce  had  the  words  been  spoken  when  the  vision 
began  to  fade.  First  the  outer  multitude  of  hands 
disappeared;  then  those  nearer  the  figure  became  con 
fused  and  clouded;  then  the  magnificent  face  itself 
grew  less  luminous,  and  slowly  disappeared,  until  at 
length  only  the  great  wonderful  eyes  shone  out  of  the 
darkness;  and  it  seemed  to  me  a  threat  mingled  with 
their  look  of  sorrow.  Then  these  too  faded  away,  and 
I  was  alone.  No,  not  alone;  for  the  room  appeared 
to  me  to  be  full  of  whispering  presences,  and  I  thought 
I  could  hear  the  soft  beat  of  innumerable  wings. 

I  was  overwhelmed  —  awe-stricken.  I  fell  on  my 
knees.  I  trembled.  I  could  not  understand  the  mean 
ing  of  the  vision;  but  the  last  look  of  those  gentle  yet 
awful  eyes  terrified  me.  I  prayed  long  and  fervently  to 
God,  if  I  had  done  wrong,  in  any  wise,  to  pardon  me; 
not  to  put  forth  His  limitless  power  against  me;  and  I 
asked  Him  to  remember  what  a  poor,  abject,  helpless 
worm  I  was.  I  begged  Him  not  to  roll  His  universe 
upon  me,  but  to  have  pity  on  my  weakness,  my  misery 
and  my  insignificance.  I  wrestled  with  God.  I  argued 
my  case  with  Him,  Why  did  the  eyes  of  His  Son 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  8/ 

threaten  me?  What  had  /  done?  For  in  my  terror 
and  confusion  I  did  not  connect  those  multitudinous 
dark  hands  with  anything  in  my  own  history.  And 
again  and  again  I  cried  aloud  for  mercy. 

My  inner  nature  was  stirred  to  its  deepest  depths. 
Feelings  I  had  never  before  experienced  rushed  over 
me,  like  high-mounting  tidal-waves,  crested  with  terror. 
My  innermost  soul  rose  above  the  thought-producing 
faculty,  and  dominated  the  conventional  being  I  had 
known  since  childhood. 

I  lighted  a  lamp.  I  looked  at  the  spot  where  the 
vision  had  appeared.  It  reproduced  itself  clearly  in 
my  memory;  but  there  was  no  physical  trace  to  mark 
what  had  been.  And  yet  I  had  no  doubt  that  I  had 
looked  upon  the  very  Son  of  God,  in  the  exact  like 
ness  he  had  worn  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  in 
Galilee,  when  he  walked  among  men,  commanding 
reverence  by  the  Godhood  in  his  countenance. 

What  did  it  mean?  I  paced  the  room.  Wrhat  did 
it  mean?  The  Christ  surrounded  by  millions  of  dark 
hands.  Why  dark  hands?  Where  were  the  hands  of 
my  own  race?  And  why  did  this  vision  come  to  me? 
What  had  /  to  do  with  the  negroes?  Could  it  mean 
that  I  had  been  false,  in  my  heart,  to  God  and  my 
fellow-men? 

I  walked  the  room  and  thought  and  thought,  until  at 
last,  wearied  and  exhausted,  I  cast  myself  upon  my  bed 
and  slept. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   TRANSFORMATION. 

"  Elements,  near  me, 

Be  mingled  and  stirred, 
Know  me  and  hear  me, 

And  leap  to  my  word ! 
Sunbeams,  awaken 

This  earth's  animation ! 

'Tis  done !     He  hath  taken 

His  stand  in  creation." 

— By  roii. 

HOW  long  I  slept  I  know  not.  It  must  have  been 
an  hour  or  two  —  an  hour  or  two  of  disturbed 
and  uneasy  slumber,  troubled  with  dreams,  in  which  I 
saw  again  and  again  those  reproachful,  threatening  eyes. 
Then  came  a  feeling  as  if  I  was  smothering —  choking. 
I  gasped  and  was  awake.  But  the  smothering  sensa 
tion  did  not  leave  me.  It  seemed  to  me  as  if  the  air 
was  exhausted;  as  if  I  was  shut  up  in  a  vault  or  — 
coffin!  And  then  I  noticed  a  strong,  negro-like  smell. 
My  first  thought  was  that  a  negro  burglar  had  entered 
my  room  and  was  leaning  over  me.  I  threw  my  hands 
up;  they  encountered  nothing.  I  was  in  total  dark 
ness.  As  my  arms  fell  one  of  them  came  near  my 
face,  and  the  negro-like  smell  grew  stronger  than  before. 
Instinctively  I  placed  my  bare  arm  close  to  my  nose, 
and  I  then  perceived  that  the  strong  odor  same  from 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  %g 

my  own  person.  What  could  it  mean?  I  felt  with  one 
hand  my  other  hand  and  arm.  The  arm  was  larger 
than  my  own  —  much  larger!  The  hand  was  coarse 
and  huge  —  the  palms  calloused  and  rough;  —  little, 
fine  filaments  of  skin  projected  from  the  frayed  cal 
losities,  as  in  the  hands  of  those  worn  with  hard  work. 
My  God!  What  does  it  mean?  I  quickly  brought  both 
hands  to  my  face.  The  negroloid  smell  was  stronger 
than  ever.  I  felt  my  face.  Instead  of  my  own  clean- 
cut  features,  my  hands  encountered  a  flat  nose  and  a 
pair  of  swollen  lips.  Was  I  dreaming  some  dreadful 
dream?  I  bit  my  hand  until  the  blood  came.  No;  I 
was  wide  awake.  The  bed  was  not  my  own.  It  was 
lumpy,  and  stuffed,  apparently,  with  straw.  I  felt  out 
on  both  sides  of  me.  My  left  hand  encountered  a  huge, 
sleeping  body. 

Where  am  I?  What  in  God's  name  does  all  this 
mean?  Am  I  insane?  Has  some  dreadful  disease  — 
like  the  Indian  elephantiasis  —  overtaken  me, 'in  my 
sleep,  and  swelled  my  limbs  and  features  to  twice  their 
natural  size?  But  that  would  not  account  for  the 
changed  bed  and  the  sleeper  by  my  side.  I  must  find 
out  where  I  am.  I  put  my  feet  out  of  the  bed  and  stood 
erect.  In  doing  so  my  head  struck  the  ceiling  with 
such  force  that  I  made  an  exclamation  of  pain.  There 
was  a  movement  in  the  bed,  and  a  voice  cried  out, 
shrilly  and  fiercely,  and  in  the  unmistakable  speech  of 
a  negro  woman: 

"  Hi  there!    Sam  Johnsing,you  d d  nigger!  What 

you  gittin'  up  for  now?  Does  you  think  yer  gwine 
steal  Colonel  Jenkins'  shirts  agin  and  pon  'em?" 


9o 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


There  was  a  bounce  out  of  bed,  on  the  instant,  and 
the  next  minute  a  match  was  struck  and  a  tallow  candle 
lighted.  It  revealed  to  me  an  astonishing  sight.  I 
was  standing  in  a  negro  cabin,  between  the  bed  and 
the  wall,  my  head  touching  the  sloping  roof.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  bed,  holding  the  lighted  candle  in  her 
hand,  and  glaring  at  me  savagely,  was  a  huge,  coal- 
black  negro  woman.  In  one  corner  was  a  cradle;  in 
another  a  wash-tub;  and  across  the  farther  end  of  the 
cabin  were  some  lines,  on  which  hung  an  assortment 
of  washing  —  stockings,  shirts  and  underwear.  All 
this  my  astonished  eyes  took  in  at  one  glance.  I  looked 
down  at  myself.  A  torn  fragment  of  a  shirt  revealed 
to  me  the  large  body,  arms  and  legs  of  a  negro  —  the 
huge,  splay  feet  resting  on  the  mud  floor  of  the  cabin. 

For  a  few  moments  I  was  as  one  paralyzed.  My 
mind  seemed  torn  from  its  moorings.  I  could  not 
put  the  facts  together.  I  had  fallen  asleep  in  my  own 
luxurious  room.  I  had  awakened  here  in  this  wretched 
hovel.  Who  was  this  woman?  I  had  never  seen  her 
before.  Who  was  this  man,  standing,  almost  naked, 
against  the  wall,  with  eyes  revolving  wildly,  taking  in 
his  surroundings?  It  could  not  be  I, —  Doctor  An 
thony  Huguet — the  gentleman  —  the  physician  —  the 
cultured  scholar  !  Oh,  no  !  That  thought  was  too 
dreadful  —  too  impossible.  I  smiled. 

The  woman  noted  the  expression,  and  said: 

"  What  you  grinnin'  at,  you  d d  nigger  —  you 

chicken -thief.  You  knows  dat  you  got  up  to  steal  dc 
clothes,  to  buy  more  whisky.  But  I'll  crack  yer  d — ' — d 
skull  first." 


DOCTOR  1IUGUET.  gi 

With  this  she  picked  up  an  ironing-board  and  as 
sumed  a  threatening  position,  advancing  toward  me. 
The  bed  was  between  us. 

And  still  my  brain  worked,  and  still  I  couldn't  under 
stand  what  it  all  meant.  How  did  I  come  here? 
Where  was  I?  What  had  happened  to  me?  Who  was 
this  standing  against  the  wall,  with  stooped  head, 
watching  the  advancing  virago?  It  was  not  I,  and  yet 
I  seemed  to  think  within  it !  How  did  I  come  to  be 
within  this  black  figure?  And  then  came  to  me  a 
dreadful  thought: 

"  My  God !  has  my  soul  been  placed  within  the  body 
of  this  black  man?  " 

And  then  I  thought  of  those  menacing  eyes;  of  that 
reproachful  face;  of  those  millions  of  black,  pleading 
hands,  all  pointed  toward  The  Christ. 

I  shrieked  out  aloud  in  terror;  and,  springing  over  the 
low  bed  and  pushing  the  woman  rudely  aside,  I  rushed 
to  a  broken  mirror,  that  hung  upon  the  wall,  and  gazed 
into  it.  The  glass  gave  back  to  me  a  terrible  revela 
tion.  There  before  me  was  the  large  face  of  a  black 
man: — the  low,  retreating  forehead; — the  clustering, 
woolly  hair; — the  flat  nose; — the  thick  lips; — the  eye 
balls  yellow  where  they  should  be  white; — the  glossy, 
oily,  ebony  skin; — the  colossal  throat. 

"Oh,  my  God!"  I  cried,  "I  am  lost!  /  am  a 
negro  !  I  am  a  negro  !  " 

I  leaped  up  and  down  with  rage  and  terror.  I 
clutched  at  my  flesh,  as  if  I  would  pluck  it  from  my 
bones  and  release  the  imprisoned  spirit.  I  opened  my 
mouth  and  looked  down  the  great  red  throat,  as  if  I 


92 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


would  seek  out  myself  within  this  body  of  damnation. 

There  was  a  yowl  from  the  cradle,  and  a  woolly  head 
protruded,  and  a  pair  of  bright,  bead-like  black  eyes 
contemplated  me  with  wonder. 

The  woman  stood  astonished  at  my  extraordinary 
movements  and  outcries.  They  were  something  beyond 
her  usual  experience. 

I  groaned  I  swore,  I  even  wept;  then  I  danced  with 
rage. 

"  See  here,  you  Sam  Johnsing,"  the  woman  said, 
"  what  de  debbil  you  mean  by  dis  kind  ob  work?  Dere 
you've  done  gone  and  waked  de  baby.  What's  de 
use  ob  shoutin',  '  I's  a  nigger!  Fs  a  nigger!  '  Ob 
course  you's  a  nigger,  and  de  meanest  nigger  in 
South  Car'liny.  An'  I  knows  you're  up  to  some 
new  game!  You're  after  dat  'ar  washin'  !  I  knows 
you,  drat  you.  If  you  don't  git  right  into  bed  I'll 
break  dis  board  ober  your  black  head  sure's  my 
name's  Emeline  Johnsing." 

And  she  came  toward  me  with  the  ironing-board 
uplifted. 

My  rage  found  a  new  vent.  I  turned  upon  her 
savagely,  and  with  startling  rapidity  tore  the  board 
from  her  hands  and  dealt  her  a  fearful  blow  upon  the 
head.  She  fell  like  an  ox  under  the  axe  of  the  butcher, 
for  I  had  smitten  her,  not  with  the  muscles  of  Doctor 
Huguet,  but  with  those  of  Sam  Johnsing,  inspired 
by  the  intellect  and  rage  of  Doctor  Huguet.  I  rushed 
for  the  door,  overturning  the  cradle,  and  leaving 
its  dusky  occupant  sprawling  and  howling  on  the 
floor, 


CHAPTER  XII. 

OUT  OF  DOORS. 

"  Ay,  marry,  now  my  soul  hath  elbow-room  ; 
It  would  not  out  at  windows  nor  at  doors." 

—  King  John,  v.  7. 

IRAN  wildly  along  the  open  road,  dimly  lighted  by 
the  stars,  past  numerous,  closely-clustered  negro 
cabins.  It  was  the  dead  of  night,  and  no  one  was 
abroad.  I  ran  and  ran,  as  if  I  would  run  away  from 
this  hated  body  which  inclosed  me.  Now  and  then  I 
stopped,  as  the  thought  recurred  to  me,  "  It  is  all  a 
horrible  dream  ;  it  cannot  be  true.  I  shall  waken 
soon!"  No,  no.  I  examined  again  and  again  my  arms, 
hands,  limbs.  I  felt  my  face.  The  glass  had  spoken 
truly.  /  was  a  negro.  I  leaped  up  in  the  air  as  if  I 
would  spring  out  of  myself.  I  rolled  in  the  dust.  I 
shrieked;  I  cried.  Then  I  prayed.  Down  on  my  knees 
—  clown  on  my  very  face,  I  prostrated  myself,  and  cried 
out,  in  the  midst  of  the  silent  night,  to  the  merciful  God 
to  spare  me  and  lift  this  curse  from  me. 

"  Smite  me  with  sudden  death,  O  Lord  God  !"  I 
cried  aloud;  "  cover  me  with  leprosy;  rot  me  with  con 
sumption;  infect  me  with  all  the  racking  pains  that  flesh 
inherits;  plunge  me  in  poverty  to  the  very  lips;  over 
whelm  me  with  shame  and  dishonor;  but  give  me  back  my 
body,  my  race,  my  white  skin  —  that  loftiest  testimony 


94 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


of  dignity  and  greatness,  throughout  all  the  habitable 
world.  Let  me  stand,  if  you  will,  O  God  !  at  some 
street  corner,  lame  and  blind  and  sick  and  sore,  with 
outstretched  hand,  living  upon  the  pitiful  and  contempt 
uous  bounty  of  my  kind;  but  give  me  back  my  white 
manhood  !  Spare  me  this  awful,  this  incomprehensi 
ble,  this  unprecedented  affliction.  And,  O  Christ  ! 
have  your  pitying  eyes  no  glance  of  mercy  for  me? 
You  died  on  the  cross,  but  you  died  a  white  man? 
This  is  a  living  cross,  a  life-long  crucifixion,  compared 
with  which  the  nails  and  the  spear  were  merciful.  Why, 
why,  O  Mighty  One,  have  you  selected  me  for  this 
dreadful  doom?  True,  I  was  false  to  the  black  man  in 
my  thoughts.  But  how  many  others  have  persecuted 
them  with  the  utmost  cruelty?  Where  arc  the  slave- 
drivers,  the  men  of  the  slave-ships,  the  men  who 
parted  husband  and  wife,  and  mother  and  child,  on  the 
auction  block?  Where  are  the  scourgers  who  made 
their  backs  run  red  with  blood  —  the  murderers  of  men, 
the  despoilcrs  of  women?  Of  all  those  millions  of 
black  hands  which  surrounded  you,  in  the  vision,  not 
one,  living  or  dead,  O  Christ!  can  be  raised  against 
me  in  imprecation  for  wrongs  done  them.  I  have  been 
kind  and  just  to  all  men.  Why,  then,  this  awful  doom? 
I,  Anthony  Huguet,  buried,  imprisoned  in  the  abhorred 
carcass  of  a  negro!  Compelled  to  look  up  to  you,  O 
Christ,  through  these  bestial  yellow  eyes;  to  speak  to 
you  through  the  swollen  and  distorted  features  of  a 
chicken-thief!  Have  mercy  on  me,  O  Christ;  have 
mercy  on  me  !" 

I  paused,  I  listened;    I   scanned  the  heavens  above 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


95 


me  for  some  answer  to  my  prayers.  There  was  none. 
The  indignation  mounted  in  my  heart  like  a  sweeping 
tide;  and  I  cursed  the  Unknown  Powers  who  stood 
behind  the  veil  of  life,  ruling  the  destinies  of  us  poor 
puppets;  making  us  the  mockery  and  sport  of  their  in 
human  humor.  In  my  ferocious  rage  (I  shame  to  say 
it),  I  blasphemed  my  very  Maker.  I  argued  with  Him  ! 
I  told  him  that  the  right  to  make  me  did  not  imply  the 
right  to  subject  me  to  such  tortures;  that  there  were 
limitations  of  fair  play  even  to  Omnipotence!  And 
then — -horrified  at  my  own  thoughts — I  fell  upon  my 
face  again  and  cried  aloud  for  "  mercy,  mercy,  mercy!" 

I  sprang  to  my  feet.  I  ran  like  the  wind.  Rapid 
motion  seemed  to  be  a  relief  to  my  mind.  On  a  hill 
top  I  caught  sight  of  long,  parallel,  converging  lines  of 
twinkling  light-spots.  It  was  the  street  of  a  town. 

I  stopped.  Where  was  I?  If  a  transformation  had 
been  wrought  in  me  whither  had  I  been  carried?  The 
dialect  of  the  woman  showed  that  I  was  in  the  United 
States  —  probably  in  one  of  the  Southern  States  —  but 
where? 

And  then  another  thought  thrilled  me,  and  a  flash  of 
joy  came  over  me.  Why  could  I  not  get  back  to 

C ,  to  my  own  house,  and,  despite  my  fleshly 

covering,  convince  my  friends  that  I  was  indeed  Doc 
tor  Huguet?  Might  there  not  be  some  power,  known 
to  science,  by  which  I  could  be  relieved  of  this  dread 
ful  spell?  And  then  there  was  Mary  Ruddiman! 

At  this  thought  I  groaned  aloud  in  anguish  of  spirit. 

"  Oh,  Mary,  Mary!"  I  cried,  to  the  night  wind,  "  fair 
and  lovely  and  loving!  Am  I  divorced  from  thee  for- 


96  DOCTOK  HUGUET. 

ever?  Are  my  golden  dreams  blasted  and  shriv 
eled?  With  all  the  attributes  of  the  soul  I  am  still 
your  accepted  lover,  but  this  beastly  habiliment  of 
flesh!  This — this  —  separates  me  from  you  by  an 
abyss  wider  and  deeper  than  the  grave  —  wider  and 
deeper  than  oceans  —  yea,  than  the  planetary  spaces." 

And  now  the  full  extent  of  my  calamity  burst  upon 
me.  Home,  fortune,  station,  race,  friends,  family  —  all 
these  were  dreadful  losses;  but  what  were  they  to  the 
loss  of  the  fair  and  loving  creature  whose  spirit  had 
permeated  mine,  and  dwelt  within  me,  side  by  side 
with  my  own  soul? 

At  least  I  could  die  ! 

That  would  end  it  all.  A  few  moments  of  agony 
and  the  imprisoned  spirit  would  escape  from  its  horri 
ble  dungeon;  this  dungeon  which  it  carried  around  with 
it;  this  walking  grave! 

But  how?  I  had  no  weapon.  I  was  almost  naked. 
There  was  no  river  or  pond  in  sight. 

I  would  go  on  in  the  direction  of  the  lights.  As  I 
walked  a  new  thought  came  to  me: 

"What!  should  I  die  a  negro?  My  life  a  failure! 
To  be  buried  in  a  negro's  grave!  Mary  lost  for 
ever!  No,  no!" 

And  then,  again,  there  rose  before  me  the  wonderful 
vision.  I  saw  the  mournful,  merciful  look  of  that 
divine  countenance;  even  when  the  fading  eyes  threat 
ened  me,  they  seemed  to  pity  me.  I  said  to  myself: 

No,  I  will  live;  this  curse  will  pass  away.  This  trial 
is  for  some  good  end." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   ARREST. 

"  She  laughed  so  long  and  she  laughed  so  loud, 
That  Dame  Ulrica  often  vowed 

A  dirge  were  a  merrier  thing,  by  half, 
Than  such  a  senseless,  soulless  laugh." 

—  Praed> 

{ADVANCED  toward  the  city.  I  would;  at  least, 
find  out  where  I  was.  I  drew  near  the  lights.  I 
passed  a  cottage  I  recognized.  Thank  God  !  I  was 

still  in  C .  I  will  go  to  my  home  and  make  myself 

known  to  Ben.  He  would  conceal  me  and  care  for  me 
until  I  had  time  to  think. 

A  faint  light  overspread  the  eastern  sky.  The  day 
was  about  to  dawn.  I  must  hurry  home  and  hide  my 
nakedness. 

The  houses  grew  more  numerous.  I  knew  the 
streets.  I  passed  a  tavern;  the  door  stood  open,  cast 
ing  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  pavement.  Some  roy- 
sterers  were  about  to  break  up  an  all-night  revel.  I 
hurried  past.  They  caught  sight  of  me.  They  were 
wild  with  liquor.  My  dishabille  offended  their  sensi 
bilities.  A  great  shout  of  laughter  broke  forth,  and 
unsteadily  they  rushed  forward,  with  many  insulting 
outcries,  and  pursued  me.  I  fled  from  them  like  the 
wind,  and  should  have  escaped  but  that,  by  511  chance, 
I  rushed  headlong  into  the  arms  of  a  policeman. 

7  97 


98  DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 

I  tried  to  break  loose  from  him.  I  must  get  home 
and  avoid  exposure!  The  policeman  held  me  fast. 
We  struggled  together.  I  was  immensely  strong. 
The  officer,  finding  I  was  about  to  escape,  beat  me 
over  the  head  with  his  club.  At  the  second  blow  I 
became  unconscious.  When  I  recovered  I  found 
myself  handcuffed  and  my  legs  tied  together,  lying  on 
an  iron  bedstead  in  a  cell  of  the  police  station.  My 
head  was  tied  up  in  a  cloth,  and  my  face  pasted  over 
with  dried  blood.  A  physician  had  his  finger  on  my 
pulse.  As  I  opened  my  eyes  he  turned  to  one  of  a 
group  of  policemen,  and  said: 

"  Here,  Billy;  he's  all  right.  But  if  his  skull  had 
not  been  an  inch  thick  you  would  have  finished  him." 

"  The  d d  nigger  is  as  strong  as  an  ox,"  replied 

Billy.  "  If  I  hadn't  given  it  to  him  he  would  have  got 
away." 

"  Do  you  know  him?  "  asked  the  doctor. 

"  Know  him?  Of  course  I  do.  We  all  know  him. 
His  name  is  Sam  Johnsing.  He's  been  before  his 
honor  twenty  times:  a  quarrelsome,  drunken  cuss,  and 
a  petty  thief.  Lives  down  in  'Nigger  Hollow.'  His 
wife's  a  decent  woman  and  washes  for  a  living.  She's 
an  honest  woman;  but  Sam's  a  bad  'un." 

"  See  here,  Sam,"  said  one  of  the  officers,  "  what 
were  you  doing  out  at  that  time  of  night,  without  your 
clothes?" 

I  tried  to  rise  from  the  bed,  but  they  threw  their 
weight  upon  me,  and  held  me  down. 

"  Come  now,"   said  Billy,   "  keep   still,  you  d d 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  gg 

'j^ 

rascal,  or  I'll  give  you  another  taste  of  the  lignum 
vita."  And  he  flourished  his  club  in  the  air. 

"  Gentlemen!"  I  said,  "  this  is  shameful  treatment. 
I  shall  complain  to  the  courts  and  fhe  newspapers.  I 
am  Doctor  Anthony  Huguet.  " 

The  burst  of  laughter  which  followed  this  announce 
ment  it  would  be  difficult  to  describe.  They  laughed  so 
loud,  and  they  laughed  so  long,  that  all  the  policemen 
in  the  station  house,  with  some  of  the  usual  hangers-on, 
came  rushing  into  the  room. 

"  What's  the  matter?  What's  the  matter?"  they 
cried. 

It  was  some  minutes  before  the  others  could  recover 
their  breath.  The  doctor,  at  last,  with  tears  of  mer 
riment  rolling  down  his  face,  his  speech  interrupted  by 
bursts  of  uncontrollable  laughter,  managed  to  gasp  out: 

"He!" — pointing  to  me  —  "He! — ha-ha-ha — he 
says  —  he's  — ha-ha-ha —  he's  —  Doctor  —  Anthony  — 
Huguet!" 

And  then  he  grasped  his  sides  to  keep  from  bursting, 
while  the  roof  rang  with  shouts  of  stentorian  laughter 
from  all  present. 

And  surely,  when  I  think  of  it  now,  I  cannot 
wonder.  Who  could  see  in  that  huge,  burly,  black, 
naked  figure,  handcuffed  and  manacled,  lying  on  a 
prison-bed,  with  two  policemen  sitting  on  him,  the 
small,  neat  figure  of  the  cultured  aristocrat,  Doctor 
Anthony  Huguet? 

An  old  black  woman,  whose  office  it  was  to  clean  up 
the  cells,  came  running  to  the  door,  and,  poking  in  her 
alarmed  face  and  grizzled  mop  of  wool,  asked  timidly 


I OO  DOC  TOR  HUG  UE  T. 

of  the  nearest  policemen  —  for  the  policemen  are  the 
gods  of  the  humble: 

"  Honey,   what's  de  matter?" 

"  Matter!  Why",  this  d d  nigger  chicken-thief, 

Sam  Johnsing,  says  he's  Doctor  Anthony  Huguet!" 

The  old  woman's  mouth  covered  half  her  face;  she 
howled  with  laughter,  and  ran  off,  dropping  her  mop 
and  slop-pail,  to  tell  her  neighbors  about  the  last 
marvelous  and  miraculous  lie  of  Sam  Johnsing. 

I  lay  there  paralyzed.  It  had  been  taught  me  that 
the  mind  is  the  man;  but  now  I  perceived  that  the 
body  is  the  man.  I  was  unquestionably  Doctor 
Anthony  Huguet.  My  intellect,  my  modes  of  thought, 
my  acquired  knowledge,  my  disposition,  my  feelings, 
my  affections,  everything  belonged  to  Doctor  Huguet. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  all  these  should  shine  through 
the  apparel  of  the  flesh,  like  a  light  through  a  porce 
lain  shade.  But  no;  the  world  saw  no  further  than 
the  skin;  men  judged  their  fellows  by  their  appearance. 
The  convolutions  of  the  brain  are  covered  by  the 
osseous  plate  of  the  impervious  skull.  And  then  I 
thought,  why  did  not  God  place  the  character  and 
mold  of  the  mind  on  the  outside  of  the  head,  so  that 
men  could  recognize  the  intellects  of  their  fellows, 
when  they  pass  them  in  the  street,  as  they  now 
recognize  the  shape  of  their  noses  or  chins?  How 
many  lovely  forms  inclose  a  mental  vacuum  !  How 
many  grand  souls  look  out  through  distorted,  Socratic 
features!  But  the  human  spirit  dwells,  unhappily  for 
itself,  behind  a  mask  —  an  impenetrable  mask. 

While  I  thus  philosophized,  the  crowd  swelled  and 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  IOI 

the  laughter  continued.  Each  new  comer  had  to  be 
told  the  extravagant  and  improbable  lie;  and  then  the 
merriment  broke  forth  afresh.  At  length  the  doctor 
said  to  me: 

"  Well,  Sam!  you  have  risen  to  a  higher  dignity  in 
the  estimation  of  your  fellow-men.  Heretofore  you 
were  simply  Sam  Johnsing,  the  purloiner  of  chickens 
and  the  appropriator  of  garden-stuff.  You  are  now 
a  recognized  genius.  You  are  the  most  colossal  liar 
in  South  Carolina;  and  that's  saying  a  great  deal!" 

And  then  they  all  laughed  again;  for  the  doctor 
had  a  large  income,  from  his  profession,  and  his  jokes 
were  always  regarded  as  excellent. 

I  remained  perfectly  quiet,  looking  from  one  of  the 
howling  mob  to  the  other.  Then  with  my  manacled 
hands  I  reached  down  and  pulled  the  dirty  bed-clothes 
over  me;  for,  although  the  body  was  not  mine,  I  took 
shame  of  Sam  Johnsing's  nakedness.  And  I  thought 
—  thought.  And  my  thoughts  were  dreadful.  For  I 
said  to  myself:  "If  my  claim,  that  I  am  other  than  I 
appear,  meets  with  such  inextinguishable  merriment, 
it  would  be  better  that  I  remain  silent.  I  cannot  con 
vince  mankind  against  the  evidence  of  their  own 
senses.  I  must  be  prudent,  and  yield  for  the  present 
to  the  uncontrollable."  And  then  I  thought,  "  Am  I 
to  yield  forever?  Is  there  to  be  no  end  to  this  thing? 
Can  I  ever  convince  Mary  Ruddiman  that  this  bloated 
form  incloses  the  mind  and  soul  of  her  fair-faced 
lover?  "  And,  forgetting  everything  around  me,  I 
groaned  aloud. 

The  doctor  reached  over  and  felt  my  pulse.      It  was 


102  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

dancing  wildly  in  tune  to  the  passions  that  swept 
through  me. 

"  Come,  sergeant,"  he  said,  "  darken  the  windows 
and  let  this  poor  devil  alone.  He  is  threatened  with 
fever." 

They  did  as  he  desired,  and  withdrew.  I  heard  the 
clank  of  the  bolt  as  it  shot  into  the  lock  behind  them. 

My  thoughts  were  blacker  than  my  body.  My  soul 
was  chained  even  as  my  limbs.  But  my  brain  worked 
and  beat  like  a  steam-engine. 

"  Prudence,  prudence!"  I  exclaimed  aloud;  "  you  can 
do  nothing  by  violence.  You  must  put  the  white- 
man's  intellect  at  work  to  get  clear  of  the  black-man's 
body.  You  must  get  away  from  here  and  go  home." 

And  then  came,  like  a  flash,  a  new  thought: 

"  If  my  soul  had  been  taken  out  of  the  body  of  Doc 
tor  Huguet  and  transferred  to  the  physical  system  of 
the  negro,  ivliat  had  become  of  the  body  of  Doctor 
Huguct?  Should  I,  when  I  came  \\omc,  find  myself  a 
corpse?  Should  I  be  in  time  to  attend  my  own  funeral? 
Or  should  I  find  that  body  simply  unconscious,  lying 
in  my  great  bed,  in  a  trance  condition?  How  could 
I  convince  even  Ben  that  the  living  negro  was  the  dead 
or  insensible  white  man?" 

"  But" — and  the  thought  was  so  dreadful  that,  man 
acled  as  I  was,  I  got  out  of  bed  and  stood  erect — "  what 
had  become  of  the  soul  of  Sam  JoJinsing?  HAD  IT 
ENTERED  INTO  THE  BODY  OF  DOCTOR  HUGUET  ? 
Would  the  base  wretch  succeed  to  my  name  —  my 
station,  my  home,  my  wealth  ?  Would  he  —  awful 
thought!  — -would  lie  marry  Mary  Ruddiman?  " 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


103 


I  jumped,  shuffled,  fell,  crawled  to  the  door  of  my 
cell,  and,  rising  up,  pounded  upon  it  with  my  great 
black  fists,  and  screamed,  until  one  of  the  policemen 
came  running. 

"  Let  me  out!  Let  me  out!  "  I  cried;  "  I  am  Doctor 
Huguet!  I  am  Doctor  Huguet!  I  am  being  robbed 
—  plundered  —  this  very  hour: — my  life,  my  home,  my 
love  —  that  cursed  wretch,  Sam  Johnsing,  has  taken 
them  all!  Let  me  out  !  Let  me  out  !  Or  I  shall  break 
down  the  door." 

"  What's  the  matter,  Bob?  "  cried  another  policeman, 
hurrying  up. 

"  Matter  ?  "  replied  Bob;  "  matter  enough!  Why,  this 
poor  devil  has  gone  crazy — crazy  as  a  bed-bug. 
Listen  to  him." 

"  The  doctor  said  he  had  a  high  fever,"  replied  the 
other;  "  he's  not  crazy,  but  sick.  Send  for  the 
doctor." 

I  beat  the  door  Until  my  hands  were  raw  and  bloody; 
I  sprang  against  it;  I  struck  it  with  my  head;  I  fell  at 
last  to  the  floor. 

How  long  I  remained  unconscious  I  know  not.  I  re 
covered  to  find  myself  on  the  cot-bed,  two  or  three 
policemen  around  me,  and  the  doctor  leaning  over  me, 
forcing  some  medicine  down  my  throat,  between  my 
clenched  teeth.  My  manacles  had  been  removed. 

I  glared  wildly  around  me.  Memory  came  slowly 
back  to  me,  and  I  realized  once  more  my  awful  position, 
and  a  groan  escaped  me. 

"  HOW  do  you  feel   now,  my  man?"  said  the   doctor 


10*4 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


kindly,  for  he  was  a  good-hearted  gentleman.  "  Here, 
take  the  rest  of  this  medicine.  It  will  quiet  you." 

"  Doctor,"  I  said,  "  my  name  is  Anthony  Huguet. 
I  am"— 

"  Yes,  yes,"  said  the  doctor,  with  a  sidelong  look 
at  the  others.  "  Yes;  we  know  all  that;  hut  say  no  more 
about  it  now.  Go  to  sleep,  and  we  will  talk  over  the 
matter  when  you  are  better.  Go  to  sleep." 

And  as  he  spoke  I  felt,  despite  all  my  wrongs  and 
sorrows,  the  powerful  influence  of  morphine  stealing 
like  a  mist  over  my  senses;  the  room  grew  dim;  the 
voices  sank  to  whispers;  the  figures  around  me  became 
shadows,  and  I  slept. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

DISCHARGED. 

"  Fly,  while  thou  art  blest  and  free, 
Ne'er  see  thou  man,  and  let  me  ne'er  see  thee." 

—  Timon  of  Athens,  iv.  3. 


,  get  up,"  said  Billy;  "  you  must  go  to  court. 
Put  on  these  clothes." 

He  handed  me  a  rough  shirt  and  trousers. 

"  Can  I  wash  myself?"  I  asked. 

"  Well,  Sam,"  he  replied,  "  you're  mighty  pertic'lar 
this  morning;  never  knew  you  to  be  so  before." 

But  he  stepped  out  and  soon  returned  with  a  basin 
of  water,  a  piece  of  yellow  soap  and  a  coarse  and  not 
overly  clean  towel.  I  removed  the  bandage  from  my 
head,  and  washed  away  the  clotted  blood,  and  cleaned 
my  hands  and  face  the  best  I  could.  The  instincts  of 
the  gentleman  triumphed  over  all  the  abasements  of 
utter  misery. 

Billy  ushered  me  into  the  prison  van,  where  I  found 
two  men  and  a  woman,  not  yet  recovered  from  last 
night's  drunken  debauch;  they  were  red,  sour,  ill- 
smelling  and  blear-eyed,  and  hardly  yet  wide  awake. 
But  they  cursed  and  complained,  as  the  wagon  jolted 
along,  at  having  to  associate  with  a  d  -  d  nigger,  the 
language  of  the  woman  being  even  fouler  than  that  of 
the  men. 

tot 


IO6  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

Wretched  creatures!  They  were  white,  but,  negro 
as  I  was,  I  drew  as  far  away  from  them  as  possible.  We 
mutually  repudiated  each  other  —  they  for  my  skin,  I 
for  their  degradation. 

"  Call  the  next  case,"  said  the  judge. 

The  police  judge  was  a  fat,  cross-eyed,  half-bald 
man  of  low  instincts  and  mean  countenance;  a  petti 
fogging  lawyer,  who  owed  his  elevation  to  the  bench 
to  his  popularity  with  the  saloons,  and  his  capacity  to 
drink  whisky  and  pack  caucuses.  He  was  morally  only 
one  degree  above  the  petty  offenders  he  every  day 
passed  judgment  upon. 

"  Call  the  next  case." 

"  Sam  Johnsing!"  shouted  the  clerk. 

"  What's  the  charge?"  asked  the  judge. 

"  There  isn't  any,"  replied  the  clerk. 

"  Who  made  the  arrest?"  inquired  the  judge. 

"  Billy  Winters,"  said  the  clerk. 

"  Stand  up,"  said  the  judge  to  me. 

I  rose  in  the  dock.  I  stood  nearly  six  feet  high.  I 
was  barefooted  —  my  feet  were  of  prodigious  size  and 
very  flat.  My  skin  was  of  inky  blackness.  I  made 
this  inventory  of  myself  as  I  stood  there  waiting. 

"  Well,  Sam,"  said  his  honor,  familiarly,  "  is  it  chick 
ens  this  time  or  laundry  work?" 

I  made  no  reply. 

"  Come,  Billy,"  said  the  judge  to  the  policeman, 
"  what  has  Sam  been  doing?" 

"  May  it  please  your  honor,"  replied  Billy,  "  I  just 
can't  say.  This  morning  about  three  o'clock,  or,  may- 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


be,  half  past,  I  was  going  down  Semmes  Street,  when  I 
hears  a  big  uproar,  and  there  comes  a  gang  of  drunken 
men  chasing  Sam,  and  Sam  a-runnin'  for  his  life.  He 
was  so  scart  he  didn't  see  me,  and  ran  plumb  into  my 
arms.  He  had  nothing  on  but  a  short  shirt  which 
reached  to  his  waist.  I  grabbed  him,  and  he  fought 
like  the  devil  to  get  loose;  and  I  had  to  club  him  sorter 
gently  to  quiet  him.  I  asked  the  drunken  men  what 
he  had  been  a-doin',  but  not  one  of  them  could  tell;  and 
so  I  took  him  to  the  station-house.  I  thought  at  one 
time  he  was  dead,  and  I  had  to  send  for  the  doctor, 
but  he  soon. came  to." 

"  Did  he  give  any  account  of  himself?"  asked  the 
judge. 

"  No,  but  he  got  off  the  darndest  lie  I  ever  heard  — 
we  all  laughed  for  half  an  hour.  He-he-he." 

"  What  was  it,  Billy?"  asked  the  judge. 
"  He  said — ha-ha-ha  —  he  said  he  was  —  ha-ha-ha  — 
he  was  —  Doctor  —  Anthony  —  Huguet  !  " 

"  Doctor  Anthony  Huguet !  "  said  the  judge;  and 
then  he  smiled;  and  then  he  looked  at  me,  standing 
there  in  the  dock — six  feet  tall,  with  my  shock  of  black 
wool,  and  my  black  skin;  with  a  shirt  and  trousers 
several  sizes  too  small  for  me;  and  great  splay  feet 
and  huge  hands  and  thick  lips  and  yellow  eyes; — and 
the  smile  broadened  into  a  grin,  and  the  grin  into  a 
laugh,  and  the  laugh  into  a  roar,  and  the  whole  court 
room  joined  in,  till  the  building  shook. 

"  Why,  the  man's  crazy!"  said  the  judge,  as  soon  as 
he  could  catch  his  breath. 

"  That's  just  it,  yer  honor,"  replied  Billy,  "  for  after 


IO8  DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 

we  left  him  in  his  cell,  he  stormed  and  raved  and  but 
ted  the  door  with  his  head,  until  he  was  all  one  gore 
of  blood;  and  he  kept  howling  that  he  was  Doctor  Hu- 
guet,  and  askin' us  to  let  him  out — just  like  a  mad 
man." 

"  How  is  he  this  morning?"  asked  the  judge. 

"  Better,"  replied  Billy;  "  he  acted  quite  sensible 
and  came  along  very  peaceable-like;  and  he  washed 
himself — a  thing  I  never  knew  Sam  to  do  before." 

"  See  here,"  said  the  judge  to  me,  "  who  are  you?  " 

The  words,  "  Doctor  Huguet,"  sprang  to  my  lips, 
but  I  glanced  down  at  my  feet,  and  stood  silent 
and  bewildered.  Was  I  Doctor  Huguet?  Was  I  not 
crazy?  And  if  I  said  I  was  Doctor  Huguet  would 
they  not  roar  with  laughter  again,  and  send  me  to  the 
insane  asylum?  And  was  it  not  necessary  that  I  should 
be  free,  to  look  after  the  real  Sam  Johnson  and  Mary 
Ruddiman?  Had  I  not  better  lie  against  my  own 
conscience? 

"  Come!  answer,"  said  the  judge,  "  who  are  you?" 

"  I  am  Sam  Johnson,"  I  replied  meekly. 

"  Where  do  you  live?"  asked  the  judge. 

"  Down  in  'Nigger  Hollow,'"  I  replied. 

"  What  were  you  doing  out  last  night,  without  your 
clothes?"  asked  the  judge. 

"  I  don't  know,"  I  replied. 

"  Had  he  been  drinking,  Billy?  "  asked  the  judge. 

"  No,  yer  honor,  I  can't  say  as  he  had  been.  I 
couldn't  smell  any  on  him.  The  doctor  said  he  had  a 
fever." 

"  Well,  that  may  account  for  it,"  said  the  judge; 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

"  he  may  have  rushed  out  of  a  sick-bed  in  a  paroxysm 
of  the  fever.  But  as  there  is  no  ofTense  charged 
against  him  I  suppose  we  must  discharge  him.  See 
here,  you  black  scoundrel,"  he  continued,  addressing 
me  fiercely,  "  you  can  go  now,  but  if  you  are  caught 
again  in  such  a  scrape  I'll  send  you  up — sure's  shoot 
ing.  And  I  say  —  Doctor  Huguet!" 

I  started  and  said  "  Sir,"  and  thereupon  the  judge 
laughed,  and  the  obsequious  court  shouted  with 
merriment. 

"  Let  him  out  of  the  pen,"  said  the  judge. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

AT    HOME. 

"  'Tis  sweet  to  hear  the  watch-dog's  honest  bark 
Bay  deep-mouthed  welcome  as  we  draw  near  home. " 

— Byron. 

BEN  was  in  the  garden. 
I  must  use  cunning.      I  will  approach  him  diplo 
matically. 

Ben  was  training  my  favorite  rose-bush  over  the 
latticed  walls  of  a  summer-house,  looking  very  much 
absorbed  in  thought. 

"  Good  morning,"  I  said  respectfully. 

"Mornin',"  said  Ben,  eying  me  askance,  with  no 
very  friendly  expression;  and  I  must  admit  I  was  not 
a  prepossessing  figure,  hatless  and  shoeless,  and  in 
that  undeveloped  suit  of  clothes;  and  Ben,  be  it  said, 
held  the  poor  of  his  own  race,  at  all  times,  in  undis 
guised  contempt. 

"  Ben,"  said  I,  "  is  Doctor  Huguet  at  home?  " 

"  Now  see  here,  nigger,  I  don't  want  you  to  come 
hyar  Ben-\vi  me.  I  don't  know  you;  and  I  guess  de 
less  I  knows  o'  you  de  better  for  dis  'stablishmcnt. 
Cl'arout!  Whut  you  want  with  Doctor  Hugay?  Doc 
tor  Hugay  don't  know  no  sich  niggers  as  you." 

"  Well,  you  might  answer  a  civil  question, —  is  the 
Doctor  at  home?"  I  asked. 

There  was  something  in  my  mode  of  speech  so  differ- 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  Ill 

ent  from  my  appearance,  that  Ben  answered,  sullenly 
enough: 

"  No;  he's  gone  fishin'." 

"  Gone  fishing,"  I  replied;  "  isn't  that  something 
unusual  for  the  Doctor?" 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  fust  time  in  ten  years." 

"  Now  see  here,  Ben,"  I  asked,  "  what  else  did  you 
observe  unusual  in  the  Doctor  this  morning?" 

Ben  laid  down  his  gardener's  knife  on  a  bench,  and 
turned  and  came  up  to  me,  and  said: 

"  See  here,  nigger,  who  is  you  ?  You  look  like  a 
nigger  and  you  talks  like  a  white  man.  And  how'd 
you  know  dat  de  Doctor  done  suthin'  oncommon  dis 
mornin'  ?  Is  you  a  Obiman  ?  Is  you  Voodoo  ?  " 

I  grew  giddy.  I  saw  plainly  that  the  soul  of  that 
wretched  chicken-thief  had  indeed  been  transferred  to 
my  own  body  at  the  very  moment  my  spirit  had  entered 
his. 

"  Goon,  Ben,"  I  replied,  and  I  fixed  him  with  my  eye. 

Ben's  manner  had  become  respectful,  not  to  say 
timid.  His  superstitions  were  all  awakened  :  —  he  felt 
he  stood  in  the  presence  of  some  one  possessing  super 
natural  knowledge  ;  for  out  of  fidelity  to  his  master  he 
had  not  disclosed  a  word  of  that  which  was  harrowing 
his  own  breast,  and  I  —  a  total  stranger — seemed  to 
know  all  about  it. 

"  I  don't  know  who  you  is,"  he  proceeded,  but  I 
'spects  you  is  a  conjurer,  and  I  might  as  well  tell  you 
all  I  knows..  I  goes  into  de  Doctor's  bed-room  dis 
mornin'  to  wake  and  shave  him.  He  was  sound  asleep. 
I  opened  de  curtains.  As  soon  as  de  light  struck  his 


112  DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 

eyes  he  gin  er  start,  an'  den  he  kicked  out  vicious  to 
de  left,  an'  he  said  :  '  H'yar,  Emeline,  get  up.  It's 
mornin'. '  He  seemed  kind  of  s'prised  that  his  kick 
didn't  reach  any  one,  and  so  he  kicked  again,  more 
vicious  than  befoah  and  furder  to  de  left.  Then  he 
got  up  on  his  elbow  and  looked  at  de  place  where  he 
had  been  kickin',  and,  findin'  no  one  dar,  he  looked 
around  de  room.  I  never  seed  no  man  so  s'prised  in 
all  my  life.  Den  he  sot  up  in  de  bed  an'  looked  an* 
looked,  fust  one  way,  den  anodder;  den  he  looked  at  de 
bed  and  felt  of  de  bed-cloze ;  den  he  caught  sight  o 
de  hand  he  was  feelin'  de  bed-cloze  wid;  an'  he 
hil  it  up  an'  stared  at  it,  an'  den  at  de  odder  hand; 
an'  den  he  pulled  up  de  sleeve  of  his  night-gown  an' 
looked  at  his  arm,  and  de  more  he  looked  de  more 
s'prised  he  got.  An'  den  he  bit  his  finger  right  hard, 
and  opened  his  eyes  very  wide  an'  looked  around  de 
room  ag'in,  more  s'prised  dan  eber.  Den  he  caught 
sight  o'  me,  as  I  stood  dar,  wid  the  hot  water  in  my 
han',  an'  he  stared  at  me  for  a  minute  or  two.  An'  den 
he  said,  kinder  soft  an'  low  an'  humble: 

"  '  Come  yere,  mister.' 

"  He  acted  like  he  was  afraid;  and  still  his  eyes  kept 
rollin'  around  de  room,  and  stoppin'  ebery  now  an' 
den  to  rest  upon  his  gold  watch  and  chain,  dat  was  lyin' 
on  a  table  near  de  bed. 

"  I  went  up  to  him. 

"  '  Mister,'  said  he,  '  who  is  I  and  where  is  I  ?' 

"  '  Why,  Doctor,'  said  I,  '  is  you  crazy  ?  Or  is  you 
just  playin'  a  game  on  Ben  ?  ' 


DOCTOR  HUG  UET.  \  \  $ 

"  An'  still  he  looked  eberywhere  and  studied  me 
hard.  An'  again  he  spoke,  sort  o'  low: 

"  '  I  don' t  remember  you.     Who  is  I  an'  where  am  I  ?' 

"  '  Well, 'I  said,  '  dis  Kagame.  Why,  o'  course  you's 
Doctor  Anthony  Hugay,  and  dis  is  yo'  house,  an' 
clat  is  de  bed  whar  you  went  to  sleep  last  night.  An' 
I  is  Ben  Magruder,  your  body  servant,  sah.  An'  it's 
time  for  you  to  get  up  and  dress  yourself.' 

"  And  I  went  and  closed  de  door  ob  de  room  for  fear 
some  ob  de  oder  servants  would  hear  his  queer  talk. 
An',  would  you  believe  it!  when  I  came  back  dat  gold 
watch  and  chain  was  gone.  It  turned  out  afterwards 
he  had  slipped  it  under  de  pillow,  but  what  he  did  it 
for  I  can't  make  out.  An'  still  the  Doctor  kept 
rollin'  his  eyes  around  dat  room,  or  lookin'  at  his 
hands,  andstudyin'  me.  Suddenly  he  said  : 

"  '  Bring  me  dat  lookin'-glass.' 

"  He  pointed  to  a  hand-mirror  on  one  of  de  booros, 
an'  when  I  give  it  to  him  he  hil  it  up  and  looked  into 
it  for  several  minutes,  kind  ob  studyin'  his  own  face. 
An'  den  a  cunnin'  look  come  into  his  eyes,  and  de 
wonder  went  out  ob  them,  and  he  got  up  and  said,  loud 
and  sharp: 

"  '  Help  me  ter  dress.' 

"  De  Doctor  never  spoke  dat  way  to  me  befo'.  I 
dressed  him  and  shaved  him,  and  all  de  time  he  axed 
me  de  cuisest  questions  —  what  was  de  names  ob  de 
servants,  when  he  knowed  them  just  as  well  as  I  did; 
and  how  much  income  he  had;  and  what  property  he 
owned;  and  whether  I  could  bring  him  a  lot  o'  money. 
'  Fo'  God,'  I  said  to  myself,  '  de  Doctor  has  done  gone 


1 14 


DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 


plumb  crazy.'  An'  den  I  brought  him  up  from  his 
desk  about  a  hundred  dollars  in  gold  and  silver  and 
bank  notes;  and  he  was  just  like  a  child:  he  would  fun 
his  hands  through  it,  and  count  it  over  and  over  agin, 
and  watch  me  like  he  thought  I  would  steal  it;  and 
then  he  would  put  it  in  one  pocket  of  his  cloze,  and 
den  change  it  to  anodder;  and  den  divide  it  up  so's  to 
have  some  in  ebery  pocket.  An'  he  would  laugh. 
Lord,  how  he  would  laugh!  An'  strut  before  de  big 
glass  and  look  at  his  cloze!  An'  den  he  took  de 
watch  and  chain  out  from  under  de  piller  and  put  'em 
on,  spreading  de  chain  out  so's  it  would  show  bigger; 
and  den  he  would  strut  ag'in  and  smile  an'  smile  an' 
laugh  and  laugh.  I  never  saw  a  critter  act  so  in  all 
my  life.  An'  den  he  walked  around  de  room  an' 
'spected  eberything,  an'  all  de  jewels  and  pretty  things 
and  brick-brack  he  puts  into  his  pockets,  until  da 
bulged  out.  And  den  I  took  him  down-stairs  to 
breakfast.  An',  Lord,  how  he  looked  at  eberything! 
An'  ebery  now  and  den  he  would  ask  me:  'Does  I 
really  own  all  dis?'  An'  when  I  told  him  ober  and 
ober  again,  yes,  how  he  would  laugh!  And  den  he 
would  look  at  me  kind  of  cunnin'-like,  and  say  he  was 
on'y  jokin'.  At  de  breakfast  he  eat  like  a  starved 
dog:  —  he  didn't  'pear  as  if  he'd  had  anything  to  eat  for 
a  week.  An'  den  old  black  Hannah,  forty  years  old, 
an'  as  ugly  as  sin,  comes  into  de  room,  and  he  jumped 
up  and  chucked  her  under  de  chin  and  tried  to  kiss  her. 
Poor  old  Hannah  nearly  fainted,  for  she  neber  saw  de 
Doctor  act  dat  way  afore;  and  I  was  more  and  more 
sure  he's  dead  crazy.  And  den  he  wanted  to  know 


DOCTOR  HUG  UK  T.  I  j  5 

what  he  done  himself  ebery  mornin';  and  I  told  him  he 
went  into  de  library  and  read  in  books  and  wrote 
things.  He  sat  in  de  library  a  little  while,  and  den  he 
said  '  he  guessed  he  go  fishin'.'  An'  den  I  saw  he  was 
gone  clean,  plumb  crazy,  for  I'd  often  heard  him  tell 
about  'a  pole  and  string,  with  a  worm  at  one  end  and 
a  fool  at  de  odder  end.'  An'  so  he's  off.  But  I  saw 
him  stop  and  talk  to  Mis  Jones'  yalla  gal,  Susan,  on  de 
way  to  de  river,  and  he  chucked  her  under  de  chin,  too, 
and  laughed;  and  I  could  see  he  was  trying  to  get  her  to 
go  fishin'  with  him,  but  she  held  back  and  wouldn't  go, 
and  he  pulled  at  her,  until  Mis  Jones  stuck  her  head 
out  ob  de  window  and  hollered  at  him  to  let  dat  gal  go; 
and  then  he  run  off,  just  like  a  scar't  nigger.  I  tell  you, 
the  naburs  is  awful  stirred  up  about  it,  and  Susan  says 
he  was  drunk;  but  I  know  he  wasn't." 

I  felt  the  blood  rushing  to  my  head,  and  I  blushed 
intensely  to  think  of  the  destruction  of  my  good  name 
which  this  scoundrel  would  effect  in  a  few  hours.  And 
yet  there  was  some  comfort  in  the  thought  that  a  man 
whose  base  appetites  led  him  in  such  low  directions 
would  not  be  likely  to  aspire  to  the  hand  of  Mary  Rud- 
diman;  he  would  rather  spend  my  money  in  the  most 
degrading  debaucheries.  If  he  came  in  contact  with 
Mary,  her  keen  perception  would  show  her  at  once  that 
he  was  only  the  body  of  Doctor  Huguet;  that  the  soul 
which  had  held  communion  with  her  own  had  gone  out 
of  him.  There  was  nothing  to  fear,  therefore,  in  that 
direction,  from  such  a  sensual  and  ignorant  barbarian. 
But  the  question  was,  how  should  I  displace  him? 
How  should  I  get  back  my  own  body?  I  stood  there, 


Il6  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

a  stranger  in  my  own  home.  Everything  around  me 
was  as  familiar  as  my  daily  life,  and  yet  I  could  claim 
nothing.  Was  it  possible  to  convert  Ben  to  a  belief 
that  I  was  his  master?  Nothing  seemed  easier.  I 
thought  as  Doctor  Huguet.  I  was  Doctor  Huguet. 
The  mind  moved  without  the  body.  It  forgot  the  body. 
What  more  natural  than  for  me,  Doctor  Huguet,  with 
all  my  consciousness,  memory,  knowledge,  to  assert 
myself?  But  then  came  back  to  me  the  dreadful  mem 
ory  of  the  police  cell  and  the  court-room.  I  could  hear 
again  the  tremendous  bursts  of  laughter  that  followed 
my  declaration  that  I  was  myself.  I  realized  that  no 
man  could  see  the  soul,  the  real  man,  but  only  the  shell 
which  his  vitality,  by  the  great  occult  processes  of 
nature,  had  gathered  around  him  from  the  material 
world.  We  thought  as  souls;  we  met  as  bodies.  "  The 
muddy  vesture  of  decay"  did  indeed  "  grossly  hem  us 
in,"  as  the  great  poet  has  said. 

In  the  meantime,  Ben  was  scanning  me  very  closely. 
I  suppose  my  very  bearing  and  my  silence  had  a  dig 
nity  which  even  my  gross  appearance  could  not  quite 
overcome.  Ben  was  keen  enough  to  perceive  I  was 
something  more  than  the  wretched,  half-clad  creature  I 
looked.  When  he  spoke  there  was  deference  in  his 
voice. 

"  What  had  I  better  do,  sah?"  he  asked. 

"  At  present  do  nothing,"  I  replied;  "let  him  take  his 
own  course.  You  cannot  stop  him." 

"  Do  you  think  he's  done  gone  crazy?"  he  asked. 

"  No,"  I  replied;  "  he  is  bewitched.       Kis  soul  has 


DOCTOR  HUGUET, 


117 


been  taken  out  of  his  body,  and  the  soul  of  a  black  man 
put  in  its  place." 

"  Gor-a'mighty,"  said  Ben,  with  uplifted  hands,  his 
eyes  dilated  and  his  dark  face  mottled  and  faded  with 
terror,  for  my  declaration  was  in  strict  accordance  with 
the  superstitions  which  he  had  been  taught  from  child 
hood.  "  Gor-a'mighty!  a  nigger  got  into  Mars  An 
thony?" 

"  Yes,"  I  replied;  "  when  he  kicked  at  Emeline,  as 
he  wakened,  he  was  kicking  at  his  wife.  His  astonish 
ment  was  unbounded  when  he  saw  around  him,  not  the 
walls  of  his  rude  cabin,  but  the  splendors  of  that  bed 
chamber.  He  bit  his  finger  to  see  if  he  was  not  dream 
ing.  He  stole  that  watch  when  your  back  was  turned, 
and  hid  it  under  the  pillow.  He  filled  his  pockets, 
also,  from  the  instincts  of  a  thief;  and  he  ran  after  the 
women  from  other  base  instincts." 

As  I  spoke,  Ben  recoiled  from  me,  the  whites  of  his 
eyes  growing  bigger  and  bigger,  his  mouth  standing 
wide  open,  his  very  flesh  trembling  with  terror. 

"  Gor-a'mighty,"  he  kept  repeating  under  his  breath. 
He  looked  as  if  about  to  run  away. 

"  Ben,"  I  said,  "  don't  you  know  me?  /  am  Doctor 
Huguet  !  I  have  been  bewitched.  My  soul  passed  last 
night  into  the  body  of  Sam  Johnsing,  and  his  soul  has 
taken  possession  of  my  body.  You  listen  to  me,  a  black 
man,  talking  with  a  white  man's  words;  you  saw  him, 
Doctor  Huguet,  playing  the  thief  and  acting  like  a  low- 
down  negro." 

Ben  cried:  "  O  Lord  !  O  Lord  !  "  and  fell  on  his  knees, 
his  eyes  rolling  wildly.  I  began  to  fear  that  the 


1 1  8  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

astounding  problem  would  be  too  much  for  the  poor 
fellow's  sanity. 

"  Come,  Ben,"  I  said,  lifting  him  up,  "  follow  me  to 
the  library,  and  I  will  prove  to  you  the  truth  of  what  I 
say." 

He  followed  me  humbly,  watchful,  like  a  dog. 

I  entered  the  large  hall  and  walked  straight  to  the 
library  door.  Ben  showed  increased  astonishment.  I 
took  from  the  shelf  two  or  three  of  my  favorite 
books. 

"  Now,  listen,  Ben,"  I  said,  "  and  I  will  read  to  you 
in  English,  French  and  Latin.  Surely  a  bare-footed 
negro  could  not  naturally  do  that.  You  will  see  that 
the  present  Doctor  Huguet  cannot  read  at  all.  Hand 
him  one  of  these  books  upside  down  and  he  will  not 
know  the  difference.  Here  is  my  file  of  receipts,"  I 
said,  going  to  a  cabinet,  "  and  there,"  pointing  it  out, 
"  is  the  receipt  for  $150.80  which  you  paid  for  me,  last 
week,  for  taxes.  You  remember  that  there  was  a  mis 
take  the  first  time,  and  you  had  to  go  back  the  second 
time  with  my  check.  And  there,  in  yonder  drawer,  I 
keep  my  check-book,  and  there,  on  yonder  table,  is 
the  package  of  new  books  which  I  received  yesterday, 
by  express,  from  New  York.  You  placed  them  there 
yourself." 

"Yes,  yes,"  said  Ben,  "  dat  is  all  so. "  And  then 
his  look  of  wonder  and  terror  gave  way  to  an  express 
ion  of  great  pity  —  for  he  was  an  affectionate  fellow  — 
and  he  said: 

"  Poor  Mars  Anthony!  And  is  you  turned  into  a 
nigger  ?  " 


DOCTOR  HUG UET.  \  \  g 

"  Yes,  Ben;  in  a  moment  I  lost  my  home,  my  fortune 
and  myself." 

"  And  Miss  Mary!  "  said  Ben,  andthe  tears  ran  down 
his  black  face. 

"  Yes,  Ben;  that  is  the  sorest  loss  of  all." 

"  She  can  never  love  a  nigger,  massa,"  he  said. 

"  I  know  that;  but  we  must  get  clear  of  this  bewitch 
ment,  and  everything  may  yet  come  right.  And  you 
must  help  me,  Ben." 

"  Yes,  yes;  ob  course  I  will,"  responded  the  faithful 
creature.  "  But  how?  Does  you  know  who  put  dis 
hoodoo  on  you?  " 

"  Yes,  Ben;  it  was  God." 

"  God!  "  echoed  Ben,  and  his  eyes  grew  larger  and 
whiter  than  ever.  "  What  did  you  do,  massa?  " 

"  I  did  nothing  but  think,"  I  replied.  "I  thought 
thoughts  that  were  false  to  my  higher  nature.  It  is 
what  is  done  in  the  inner  sanctuary  of  the  temple  that 
defiles  the  temple.  The  sun  may  shine  and  the  flow 
ers  bloom  on  pillar  and  architrave,  but  if  the  priest 
of  God  is  false  at  the  altar  of  his  soul  the  light  of  the 
building  is  dead  forever.  We  are  what  we  are  in  our 
dealings  with  our  inner  conscience." 

Ben  shook  his  head;  he  could  not  understand 
this. 

"  You  must  pray  to  God  for  me,  Ben,  and  ask  him 
to  lift  this  living  curse  off  my  soul,"  I  said,  "  and  you 
must  give  me  some  clothes,  for  I  must  go  to  Mary  and 
talk  with  her.  Bring  me  a  suit  of  clothes  to  the  bath 
room,  and  I  will  wash  and  dress  myself.  First  meas 
ure  me  and  take  money,  go  to  the  store  and  get  me 


I  2O  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

some  clothes  that  will  fit  me;  for,  now  I  think  of  it, 
my  own  are  too  small  for  this  wretched  carcass." 

In  an  hour  I  had  given  the  body  of  Sam  Johnsing 
the  most  complete  scrubbing  it  had  ever  received 
since  it  was  born  into  the  world;  and  I  was  equipped 
in  a  suit  of  ready-made  clothes  that  approximately 
fitted  me.  Ben  had  purchased  shoes  and  stockings  and 
underwear,  but  he  had  forgotten  to  procure  one  very 
essential  article  of  apparel  —  a  hat.  He,  however, 
bought  me  a  new  soft  felt  hat  of  my  own,  in  which  the 
hatter  had  placed  my  name,  and  I  found  I  could  force 
it  onto  my  head,  despite  my  thick  shock  of  wool. 
Thus  equipped,  with  a  few  dollars  in  my  pocket,  I 
bade  Ben  farewell,  and  started  forth. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

AN   INTERVIEW. 

"Pray  thee,  sweet  mistress  Margaret,  deserve  well  at  my  hands  by  help 
ing  me  to  the  speech  of  Beatrice." 

—  Much  Ado,  v.  2. 

{WALKED  soberly  enough  as  long  as  I  was  within 
the  city  limits,  for  I  had  no  desire  to  attract  espe 
cial  attention;  but  as  soon  as  I  came  into  the  region  of 
fenced  fields  and  country  roads  the  ferment  within  me 
hastened  my  steps.  It  seemed  to  me  I  would  never  get 
over  those  ten  miles.  Fortunately  for  me,  the  legs  I 
had  borrowed  from  Sam  Johnsing  were  big  and  long 
and  strong;  and,  driven  by  the  impetuosity  of  my  pas 
sionate  soul,  they  fairly  flew  over  the  ground.  But 
even  the  limitations  of  very  rapid  walking  were  not 
enough  for  me;  occasionally  on  a  lonely  road  I  would 
start  and  run.  Now  and  then  I  passed  gentlemen  and 
ladies  of  my  acquaintance  on  horseback  or  in  car 
riages.  I  instinctively  spoke  to  them,  to  be  rewarded 
by  an  indignant  stare  that  brought  me  back  to  a  re 
membrance  of  my  condition. 

And  all  this  time  my  brain  throbbed  and  worked, 
and  my  heart  beat  violently.  I  would  see  Mary.  I 
would  explain  everything.  She  would  believe  me. 
SJie  would  pity  me.  We  would  wait  until  this  awful 
visitation  had  passed  from  me.  There  was  hope  yet 
for  me.  Far  ahead  I  could  see  the  bright  light  of 


122  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

joy.  Visions  of  love  and  happiness,  in  my  dear  home, 
with  Mary  beside  me,  once  more  a  white  man,  came 
before  me  as  the  woods  moved  by  me  in  my  rapid 
advance. 

The  day  was  hot.  I  grew  thirsty.  I  remembered 
that  by  the  roadside,  a  short  distance  ahead,  there  was 
a  woodland  spring  trickling  out  of  the  rocks,  and  falling 
into  a  pool  of  crystal  clearness  and  beauty.  Many  a 
time,  when  a  boy,  hunting  through  these  forests,  had  I 
plunged  my  face,  rosy  with  youth  and  health,  into  the 
fountain,  and  drunk  my  full  of  the  delightful  liquid. 
Later  in  life  I  had  rested  by  the  refreshing  pool,  and 
philosophized  upon  the  goodness  of  God,  whose  hand 
had  fashioned  these  threads  of  living  water,  creeping 
among  the  close-packed  rocks,  and  through  earth  and 
gravel,  and  bursting  forth  at  last,  pellucid  and  beautiful, 
for  the  good  of  His  creatures.  And  I  could  not  help 
but  compare  it  to  a  pure  human  soul  passing  through 
all  the  pressing  insistance  of  multitudinous  sins,  and 
coming  forth  at  last  without  a  stain  or  discoloration 
upon  its  bright  surface, —  a  thing  of  the  earth,  yet 
earthless. 

I  hastened  my  rapid  steps.  I  knelt  down  upon  the 
mossy  earth.  My  beating  mind  was  still  full  of  my 
fair-faced  love  and  hope  and  joy.  I  leaned  forward. 
My  lips  approached  the  glassy  mirror.  Horror  of 
horrors!  I  started  back.  There  was  the  brutalized 
face  I  had  for  a  brief  space  forgotten!  The  low  brow, 
the  shock  of  crinkled  hair,  the  ebony  skin,  the  yellow 
eyes,  the  tumid,  protuberant  lips,  the  whole  animal-like 
face  of  the  chicken-thief. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


I23 


I  fell  back  on  my  knees.  I  tore  at  my  close-packed 
wool.  I  called  on  God.  I  shrieked  out  aloud  in  the 
solitude.  I  realized  the  awful,  immeasurable,  un 
fathomable,  unbridgable  gulf  which  separated  me 
from  Mary  Ruddiman.  It  seemed  to  me  a  profanation 
to  utter  her  blessed  name  with  those  shapeless,  swollen 
lips;  and  yet  I  cried  out  aloud  to  the  forest  and  the 
fountain,  and  the  listening  squirrels  and  the  attentive 
birds:  "  Mary!  Mary!  Mary!"  —  I  prayed  to  her  to  help 
me,  and  then  I  thought  of  those  reproachful  eyes  that 
looked  out  at  me  from  the  fading  light  of  my  bed 
chamber,  and  threatened  me  even  while  they  pitied  me. 

I  forgot  my  thirst.  I  sat  down  upon  a  rock  and 
thought.  Should  I  turn  back?  Should  I  intrude  in 
this  dreadful  form  upon  the  presence  of  that  refined 
and  cultured  spirit?  And  then  the  thought  of  self- 
destruction  recurred  to  me.  Was  there  any  escape 
from  this  dark  valley  of  desolation  save  by  the  darker 
gates  of  death?  And  the  hereafter?  Might  not  the 
philosophers  I  had  despised  be  right  after  all?  Were 
not  God  and  the  world  beyond  the  grave  the  dreams 
of  enthusiasts,  and  reminiscences  of  the  credulous 
youth  of  the  human  race?  Was  there  anything  in 
nature  more  than  we  could  see?  My  brain  was  whirling; 
for,  on  the  instant,  like  a  revolving  panorama,  it  seemed 
to  me  that  all  space  flashed,  circling  around  me,  densely 
packed  with  unknown  creatures,  with  indescribable 
forms  that  flowed  into  each  other,  and  the  universe  was 
full  of  faces  and  eyes,  all  centered  upon  me;  faces  misty 
and  shadowy  through  which  other  eyes  looked;  faces 
behind  faces,  mingling  with  each  other,  as  if  the  illim- 


124 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


itable  void  had  not  room  enough  for  the  intelligences 
with  which  God  had  packed  and  crowded  it.  And 
something  within  me  seemed  to  cry  out:  "  Fool !  fool ! 
thinkest  thou  that  thy  capacity  for  thought  is  but  an 
orphan  accident  in  the  midst  of  a  barren  universe? 
No,  no,  the  universe  is  thought.  Thy  mind  is  but  a 
fragment,  chipped  off  and  dropped  to  earth,  from  the 
illimitable  Soul  of  Things,  bearing  upon  it  the  stamp  of 
its  divinity  in  its  sense  of  right,  its  imperial  conscience. 
Death  is  but  the  opening  of  a  door.  The  room  is 
empty,  but  the  tenant  has  wandered  elsewhere." 

"And,  after  all," — I  said  to  myself, — "  measured  by 
the  line  of  immortality,  this  little  life  is  nothing.  I  may 
be  cast  down,  outraged,  humiliated,  degraded,  robbed 
of  home  and  love;  but  in  a  little  while  all  this  will 
pass  away.  All  things  will  pass  away.  Ages  are  but 
seconds  on  the  dial  of  eternity.  One  thing  remains 
even  to  the  most  wretched  —  to  do  his  duty.  Duty  is 
the  obligation  he  owes  to  the  Creator.  It  ties  him  to 
the  scheme  of  the  universe,  and  makes  him  a  partici 
pator  in  the  work  of  the  angels." 

Strengthened  and  chastened  by  these  thoughts,  I 
rose  and  proceeded  slowly  on  my  way. 

I  approached  the  home  of  her  who  was  dearer  to  me 
than  life.  I  feared  to  meet  her.  I  skirted  the  woods 
until  I  came  where  I  could  see  the  house.  How  differ 
ent  from  that  recent  visit,  when  I  rode  to  the  front 
door  of  the  mansion,  and  was  received  by  the  whole 
hospitable  family  with  open  arms,  as  the  honored  and 
accepted  lover  of  the  daughter  of  the  house.  Now  I 
sneaked  in  the  shadows  like  a  thief.  I  feared  the  sun- 


DOCTOR  aVGUET.  125 

shine.  I  opened  the  bushes  with  my  huge  black  hands 
and  peered  through.  I  started  at  every  sound  like  a 
guilty  thing.  I  could  see  the  porch,  the  windows,  the 
garden.  She  was  not  there.  I  longed  for  her,  and 
yet  I  shuddered  and  trembled  at  the  thought  of  meet 
ing  her.  I  looked  behind  me.  I  meditated  flight. 
Hah!  What  is  that  white  object  slowly  advancing 
toward  the  house,  along  the  road,  near  which  I  stand, 
revealed  in  sudden  glimpses  through  the  shrubbery? 
The  descending  sun  cast  long  shadows.  There  it  is 
again!  It  may  be  she.  It  comes  nearer.  Yes;  it  is 
a  woman's  form,  dressed  in  white.  It  comes  near  me. 
I  tremble  as  if  I  had  an  ague  fit.  My  lips  are  parched, 
and  my  tongue  and  throat  dry  and  dusty.  What  shall 
I  do?  I  look  again.  Thank  God,  it  is  Abigail! 

I  advanced  into  the  road.  She  started  back  from 
the  black  apparition  suddenly  confronting  her,  but 
with  a  resolute  look  on  her  handsome  face. 

"Abigail,"  I  said,  and  I  lifted  up  my  hat  with  all 
courtesy,  "  you  do  not  know  me,  but  I  know  you,  and 
I  know  the  kindness  of  your  heart;  and  I  would  ask 
permission  to  have  a  few  words  of  conversation  with 
you." 

She  seemed  surprised  at  such  language  issuing  from 
such  a  repellant  face;  but  the  tie  of  blood  had  brought 
her  into  much  unwelcome  contact  with  the  negroes 
around  her,  all  of  whom  recognized  her  as  one  of  their 
own  race,  and  she  replied: 

"  What  have  you  to  say?     Be  as  brief  as  possible." 

"Abigail,"  I  began,  "  you  see  before  you  the  most 
wretched  creature  in  all  this  fair  world.  My  language 


126  DOCTOR  HUG  VET, 

tells  you  that  there  is  some  incompatibility  between  my 
education  and  my  appearance,  and  yet  I  fear  to  tell 
you  my  secret  because  I  know  you  will  treat  it  with 
scorn  and  mockery." 

She  had  listened  to  me  attentively,  her  interest  deep 
ening  as  I  proceeded. 

"  Go  on,"  she  said;  "  Heaven  forbid  that  I  should 
mock  anything  you  may  tell  me.  I  have  my  own  sor 
rows;  and  the  wretched  always  sympathize  with  the 
wretched." 

"  Thank  you,  Abigail,"  I  replied,  "  for  your  words 
of  comfort.  Do  you  remember  a  day,  not  long  since, 
when  I  —  I  mean  Doctor  Huguct  —  sat  on  yonder 
porch  with  Colonel  Ruddiman  and  his  friends,  and  you 
sat  at  an  upper  window,  and  we  —  they —  talked  about 
the  negroes,  and  I  —  I  mean  Doctor  Huguet  —  argued 
in  their  defense,  and  claimed  that  the  white  people 
might  have  derived  their  long  skulls,  in  some  remote 
age,  from  a  negro  tribe  dwelling  in  southern  Europe; 
and  that  they  were  afterward  bleached  white  in  the 
lands  of  ice  and  snow  and  caves  and  clouds?" 

"  Yes,"  she  replied,  looking  very  much  astonished, 
"  but  who  are  you?  And  how  did  you  know  I  listened 
at  an  upper  window  to  the  conversation?  I  never  saw 
you  before,  and  you  were  certainly  not  there." 

"  Abigail,"  I  replied,  "  if  I  tell  you  something  ter 
rible  and  extraordinary,  you  will  not  think  me  crazy  or 
an  impostor?" 

She  recoiled  a  step,  still  watching  me  intently,  but 
made  no  reply. 

"  Abigail,"  I  said,  "  I  am  Doctor  Huguet!" 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  \  2 7 

She  threw  up  her  hands  in  alarm  and  horror.  Then, 
as  the  impossibility  of  such  a  thing  dawned  upon  her, 
she  began  to  smile. 

"  Why,  that  is  absurd  !  "  she  said,  and  her  face  almost 
broke  into  a  laugh.  "You  Doctor  Huguet!  Why, 
Doctor  Huguet  is  a  small,  aristocratic-looking,  white 
gentleman  of  family  and  position,  and  you  " 

"  Yes,"  I  added,  "  and  I  am  a  great,  ugly  negro  — 
one  of  the  ugliest  of  that  wretched  race  —  a  poor, 
homeless  wanderer,  belonging  to  a  despised,  Pariah 
caste.  But  you  can  see,  Abigail,  that  I  speak  with  all 
the  culture  and  correctness  of  Doctor  Huguet  himself, 
and  that  I  tell  you  things  which  no  stranger  could 
know." 

Her  face  grew  perplexed,  and  the  great  black  eyes 
glowed  intensely  at  me. 

"  But  how,"  said  she,  "  could  you  be  Doctor  Huguet? 
Are  you  not  some  educated  negro  from  the  North,  who 
has  wandered  here  and  become  demented?" 

"  No,  no,  Abigail,"  I  replied.  "  How  would  I  know 
your  name  if  I  was  a  stranger  here?  How  could  I  tell 
you  the  subject  of  that  conversation?  How  could  I 
have  known  that  you  listened  in  hiding  at  an  upper 
window,  because  the  conversation  had  a  special  interest 
for  you?  No  one  but  Doctor  Huguet  noticed  you,  for 
he  was  lying  in  the  hammock,  looking  upward,  while 
the  others  —  Colonel  Ruddiman,  Major  McFettridge, 
Major  Berrisford,  Attorney  Buryhill,  and  the  rest, 
occupied  chairs." 

She  stopped  and  thought,  and  still  the  great  black 
eyes,  in  which  you  could  see  no  pupil,  blazed  at  me. 


I28  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

"  But  how  could  one  man  be  two  men?"  she  said; 
"  how  could  you  be,  at  the  same  time,  Doctor  Huguet 
and" 

"  Sam  Johnsing,  of  Nigger  Hollow,  the  most  noto 
rious  chicken-thief  in  this  county,"  I  added.  "  No, 
Abigail,"  I  continued,  "  I  am  not  two  men.  I  am 
the  soul,  the  thinking-principle,  of  Doctor  Anthony 
Huguet,  imprisoned  in  this  shameful  confinement. 
Sam,  the  thief,  and  I  have  changed  tenements.  I  am 
now  in  his  carcass,  and  he  is  masquerading  in  mine. 
You  will  see  him  and  you  will  see  the  change." 

"  What  caused  it?  "  she  asked,  and  in  her  face  awe 
and  incredulity  contended. 

"  Abigail,"  I  replied,  "  you  remember  that  that  after 
noon  I  defended  the  negro  race  against  the  prejudices 
of  those  white  gentlemen.  I  did  so  partly  because  I 
believed  what  I  said,  partly  out  of  the  wantonness 
of  idleness  and  the  spirit  of  controversy.  And  you 
remember  that  those  who  heard  me  took  offense  at  the 
freedom  of  my  speech  and  avoided  the  house  there 
after." 

"  Yes,  yes,"  she  said,  "  I  remember  all  that.  As  I 
listen  to  you  I  believe  —  when  I  look  at  you  I  cannot 
believe.  Go  on." 

"  I  asked  Miss  Mary" — this  was  the  first  time  I  had 
mentioned  her  name,  and  I  did  it  with  a  pang  and  an 
effort — "  I  asked  Miss  Mary  why  the  neighbors  staid 
away  from  the  house;  and  she  told  me  that  the  views  I 
had  expressed  had  given  the  n  mortal  offense,  and  that 
I  could  not  rise  in  the  political  world  if  I  continued  to 
profess  them.  We  had  a  long  discussion,  and  I  —  I 


DOCTOR  HUG  VE T.  I  2 9 

shame  to  say  it,  Abigail  —  I  made  up  my  mind  to  sup 
press  the  utterance  of  my  honest  convictions  for  the 
sake  of  the  triumphs  and  glories  of  life.  It  is  true  I 
had  a  mental  reservation  that  if  I  attained  place  and 
power  I  would  use  both  for  the  lifting-up  of  all  men, 
including  the  poor,  despised  negroes.  But  for  success 
I  trampled  upon  my  conscience.  I  crushed  under  my 
feet  the  bright  lamp  of  the  soul.  And,  Abigail,  there 
are  threads  that  connect  the  conscience  of  the  humblest 
with  the  great  White  Throne  of  heaven;  and  when  any 
man  murders  his  sense  of  right  all  the  legions  of  angels 
are  disturbed  in  their  serenity.  That  night,  in  my  own 
chamber,  I  was  visited,  not  sleeping,  but  awake,  by  the 
most  wonderful  and  terrible  vision  that  ever  blessed 
and  cursed  the  eyes  of  man.  Abigail,  I  saw — The 
Christ!" 

My  voice  fell  to  a  whisper,  and  Abigail's  face  grew 
pale. 

"  Yes;  He  came  to  me  as  He  had  lived  —  with  a  mar 
velous  human  countenance,  with  radiant  hair  —  self- 
luminous —  and  unutterable  eyes,  and  an  aspect  of  such 
pity  and  sorrow  that  my  very  soul  was  shaken  to  its 
innermost  depths.  And  around  him,  like  a  living 
frame-work,  were  the  hands  of  millions  of  negroes, 
many  of  inky  blackness,  some  brown,  and  some  as  fair 
as  your  own,  all  directed  toward  him  in  the  attitude  of 
prayer;  —  millions  of  sufferers, —  millions  of  the  pro 
scribed  of  humanity, —  millions  on  whom  the  whole 
weight  of  the  world  presses  with  crushing  force.  And 
he  spake.  Yea,  the  very  voice  that  said,  '  Suffer  little 
children  to  come  unto  me  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of 


I  10  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

\J 

such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,'  rang  in  my  chamber, 
sanctifying  it  forever,  and  he  said,  glancing  around 
that  interminable  circle,  with  a  look  of  infinite  com 
passion  : 

"  '  These,  too,  are  my  children.  For  them,  also,  Idled 
on  the  cross  !  ' 

"  As  the  vision  passed  away  the  merciful  eyes  re 
proached  me.  They  seemed  to  say,  '  I  had  hoped 
you  Would  have  done  my  work  on  earth.  I  gave  you 
wealth,  station,  ability,  all  the  good  gifts  of  life.  I 
gave  you  a  heart  to  feel  for  the  sorrows  of  your  kind; 
but  you  closed  up  the  avenues  of  your  soul  with  filthy, 
little  ambitions,  with  the  small  hopes  of  small  prefer 
ments,  for  a  little  mouth-honor  and  lip-glory  which 
pass  away  like  the  mist  of  the  morning.' ' 

The  transformation  of  the  face  of  my  listener  was 
something  wonderful.  The  doubt,  the  incredulity  were 
all  gone;  the  attention  was  intense. 

"  I  fell  asleep  again,  Abigail,"  I  continued;  "  I  woke 
up  in  a  wretched  cabin;  I  found  myself  within  the  body 
of  a  negro.  This  is  my  punishment.  This  is  my  living 
death.  I  sit  in  the  midst  of  my  sorrows  as  in  a  tomb. 
I  cannot  die.  I  cannot  fly  into  the  unknown  world 
out  of  which  can  come  such  visions.  I  know  nothing, 
I  can  surmise  nothing  of  the  much  that  must  be  there. 
That  is  what  terrifies  me — the  unknown,  the  immeas 
urable!  I  have  no  fear  of  hell.  This  is  hell.  The 
proud  mind  that  dwells  in  a  proscribed  body  lives  in 
hell.  Coals  and  flames  are  nothing  to  the  anguish  of  a 
tortured  spirit.  It  is  the  soul  that  feels  the  burning, 
not  the  dead  matter  of  the  body." 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  \  £  I 

At  the  last  words  Abigail's  face  softened,  and  the 
tears  rolled  slowly  down  her  cheeks.  I  had  touched 
upon  the  secret  passion  of  her  life.  Hers,  too,  was  the 
proud  mind  in  the  proscribed  body;  she,  too,  had  en 
dured  the  flames  of  hell.  Her  imprisoned  soul,  like  a 
bird,  had  beaten  its  wings  against  the  roof  of  her  gilded 
cage,  only  a  few  thin  lines  of  prejudice  separating  her 
from  the  heaven  she  would  aspire  to.  All  the  warm,  hot 
love  of  her  passionate  nature  was  hurled  down  from  the 
towers  of  caste,  like  the  angels  of  Lucifer,  reeling  back 
ward  from  the  battlements  of  heaven,  and  falling,  fall 
ing  into  the  nethermost  pit. 

"  Poor  Abigail,"  I  said,  and  I  took  her  fair  small 
hand  in  my  great  black  paw,  "  you  believe  my  story?  " 

"  Why  not?  "  she  said.  "  God  puts  our  souls  where 
he  pleases,  and  there  is  oftentimes  no  compatibility 
between  the  spirit  and  its  tenement.  How  often  have 
I  prayed  and  wept  for  death  to  come,  and  death  would 
not  come.  That  which  happened  to  you  the  other 
day  happened  to  me  at  my  birth:  a  white  soul  was 
placed  in  one  socially  a  negro.  The  charm  may  be 
removed  from  you  in  a  few  days  or  months,  but  I 
must  carry  my  curse  to  the  grave.  The  whole  world 
moves  upward  and  forward,  but  I  must  go  downward 
or  backward — despair  or  destruction  are  my  only 
alternatives.  My  case  is  greatly  worse  than  yours." 

''  That  is  true,  Abigail;  but  let  our  fates  be  a  bond 
of  union  between  us,"  I  replied.  "  If  I  ever  recover 
my  lost  condition  I  promise  you  I  shall  toil  and  scheme 
to  lift  you  out  of  your  destiny.  With  my  money  and 
your  fair  beauty  I  shall  establish  you  in  some  far 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


Northern  city,  or  in  Europe,  where  the  cruel  prejudices 
of  blood  shall  fall  away  from  you,  and  you  may  love 
and  marry  where  honor  points  the  way,  and  the 
barriers  of  caste  shall  disappear  from  around  you 
forever.  " 

She  thanked  me  warmly,  with  eyes  glowing. 

"  And  now,  Abigail,"  I  said,  "  I  want  you  to  bring 
all  this  to  the  knowledge  of  Miss  Mary.  You  know  we 
were  to  have  been  married.  That,  of  course,  is  all 
past,  it  may  be,  forever.  But  I  desire  one  last  inter 
view  with  her,  and  then  I  shall  go  out  into  the  world 
alone,  to  fulfill  the  destiny,  whatever  it  is,  for  which  I 
have  been  appointed.  Can  you  tell  my  story  to  her 
and  bring  her  here?  Can  you  persuade  her  to  believe 
in  the  truth  of  the  improbable  narrative  I  have  com 
municated  to  you?  I  dread  to  meet  her,  and  yet  I 
must  do  so." 

She  promised.  to  do  as  I  had  requested,  and  left  me, 
walking  slowly  along  the  road  to  the  house.  I  retreated 
into  the  woods  by  the  roadside.  It  was  then  about  one 
hour  before  sunset. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   LADY    OF   MY   LOVE. 

"  Had  we  never  loved  so  kindly, 
Had  we  never  loved  so  blindly, 
Never  met,  nor  never  parted, 
We  had  ne'er  been  broken-hearted." 
—  Btirns. 

THROUGH  the  trees  I  watched  the  slowly  receding 
figure,  with  the  thoughtful  pose  of  the  head,  think 
ing,  thinking  of  my  dreadful  story,  and  a  great  pity  went 
out  from  my  heart  toward  that  fair  sufferer;  —  fair  and 
beautiful  and  yet  proscribed; — alone,  facing  a  hostile 
world.  And  yet,  so  strong  is  the  power  of  prejudice, 
I  felt,  even  while  I  pitied  her,  that  I  could  not  have 
married  her  — no,  not  if  Mary  did  not  exist.  Beauty  of 
mind,  beauty  of  soul,  exquisite  beauty  of  body,  such 
as  fires  the  hearts  of  men  and  sets  their  brains  throb 
bing  passionately,  all  this  she  had;  everything  to  make 
the  life  of  man  sunshine  and  his  home  paradise,  and 
yet,  across  the  golden  image  of  all  this  perfection  ran 
diagonally  that  thin,  dark  bar  sinister;  and  prejudice 
stood  up  and  pointed  at  it,  and  hissed  its  scorn,  and  all 
the  furies  of  society  with  blazing  eyes  denounced  it. 
Oh,  strange,  sad  world,  where  a  thought  of  the  mind 
has  such  power  to  undo  all  the  works  and  merits  of 

nature! 

133 


134 


DOCTOR  UUGUET. 


So  thinking,  I  saw  her  enter  the  door  of  the  man 
sion. 

I  waited;  I  knew  she  was  telling  my  awful  story  to 
Mary.  How  would  she  receive  it?  With  incredulity? 
With  sorrow?  Would  love  for  me  die  out  of  her 
heart  in  the  presence  of  the  great  calamity  which  had 
overwhelmed  me?  Ah!  there  was  the  dread. 

And  still  I  waited.  The  tree-trunks  cast  long  shad 
ows.  Now  and  then  a  lizard  gleamed  like  a  line  of 
rapid  light.  A  squirrel  sat  above  me  and  chattered 
and  scolded  me.  And  glittering  insects  rejoiced  in 
their  brief  hour  of  life  won  out  of  the  eternity  of  noth 
ingness.  An  hour  passed. 

And  then,  through  the  last  light  of  the  sinking  sun, 
I  saw  two  figures  advancing  along  the  solitary  road, 
toward  my  hiding-place.  They  were  the  figures  of 
women..  As  they  drew  near  I  recognized  Mary  and 
Abigail.  A  short  distance  from  me  Abigail  paused, 
and  Mary  advanced  alone,  slowly,  and  looking  from 
right  to  left.  There  was  only  curiosity  upon  her  face. 

I  stepped  forward  into  the  road.  I  could  not  speak. 
She  looked  at  me  intently  and  fearlessly ;  then  she 
spoke: 

"  Abigail,"  she  said,  "  has  been  telling  me  a  ridicu 
lous  story  that  you  are  Doctor  Huguet.  How  have 
you  imposed  on  the  poor  girl's  credulity?  Who  are 
you?  " 

"  Mary,"  I  replied,  "  Abigail  has  told  you  the  truth. 
Incredible  as  it  may  appear,  the  soul  of  your  affianced 
lover,  Doctor  Anthony  Huguet,  dwells  in  this  hideous 
carcass.  A  visitation  of  God  has  fallen  upon  me." 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


135 


I  repeated  to  her  the  story  I  had  told  Abigail. 

"  And  do  you  expect  me,"  she  said,  "  to  believe  such 
a  statement  as  that  —  such  an  incredible,  absurd  story. 
You  slander  Doctor  Huguet  in  telling  it.  You  are 
some  cunning  impostor  who  has  made  himself  familiar 
with  the  circumstances  of  my  family  and  my  relations 
to  Doctor  Huguet,  and  you  have  sought  me  for  some 
mercenary  purpose.  " 

"  O  Mary,  Mary,"  I  cried,  "  do  not  add  to  my  un 
utterable  miseries.  Do  you  want  proof  of  the  truth  of 
my  story?  Wait  until  you  meet  that  wretched  negro, 
concealed  in  my  body;  you  will  see  at  once  that  it  is 
not  I.  The  mind,  the  soul  is  wanting.  Do  you  ask 
for  further  proof?  Do  you  remember  the  first  time  we 
ever  met  in  my  library?  Will  I  tell  you  what  we  were 
discussing  —  and  there  was  no  one  there  but  you  and  I? 
You  had  been  reading  Ben  Jonson's  Sejanus,  and  we 
talked  about  the  resemblance  of  Jonson's  prose  writings 
to  Bacon's  works,  and  you  claimed  that  there  were 
passages  in  Sejanus  equal  to  anything  in  the  Shake 
speare  plays.  And  you  quoted  from  Ben  Jonson: 
'  Language  most  shows  a  man.  Speak  that  I  may  see 
thee.'  Alas!  I  speak  as  Doctor  Huguet,  and  you  can 
not  see  me  in  this  mean  habiliment.  And  you 
remember: 

"  '  'Tis  place, 
Not  blood,  discerns  the  noble  and  the  base.' 

And  do  you  remember  how  aptly  you  quoted  that 
expression  in  our  discussion  as  to  my  future  political 
career?  " 

The    astonishment    revealed    in    her    face    was    un- 


DOCTOR  1IUGUET. 


bounded  —  to  not  only  hear  such  discourse  proceeding 
from  such  a  rude  and  brutal  countenance,  but  to  have 
the  details  of  our  most  intimate  conversations  thus 
repeated  by  one  of  such  utterly  ignorant  appearance. 

"  This  is  all  very  strange,"  she  said,  thoughtfully, 
"  but  I  refuse  to  believe  the  impossible.  There  is  no 
precedent  in  all  the  world  for  such  a  story.  I  cannot 
explain  your  learning,  or  your  acquaintance  with  my 
conversations  with  Doctor  Huguet  ;  but  the  most 
superstitious  explanation  of  such  facts  would  be  more 
reasonable  than  to  believe  that  Doctor  Anthony 
Huguet  has  exchanged  souls  with  a  negro.  I  shall 
have  to  ask  you  to  pardon  me;  I  must  return  to  the 
house." 

She  turned  away.  My  whole  soul  seemed  to  pour 
out  of  me.  I  fell  upon  my  knees  and  grasped  her  hand. 

"  O  Mary,  Mary,"  I  cried,  "  do  not  leave  me.  You 
carry  the  world  with  you.  You  are  my  only  hope. 
There  is  nothing  but  death  for  me." 

The  blood  suffused  her  face  for  an  instant.  I  can 
remember  how  she  then  drew  back;  —  I  can  never  for 
get  the  pale  horror  of  her  countenance  —  the  nostrils 
dilated  with  indignation  —  the  crescent  eye-brows 
lifted  with  astonishment. 

"  Let  go  of  my  hand,"  she  said,  looking  at  me  with 
loathing. 

But  I  clung  to  it  as  the  drowning  mariner  clings  to 
the  last  plank.  The  ocean  of  desolation  roared  around 
me. 

"  O  Mary!  Mary!  "  I  cried,  "  believe  me;  have  pity 
on  me.  My  love!  —  my  hope!  —  my  life!" 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


137 


She  screamed  for  Abigail,  who  came  running.  Some 
negroes  who  had  been  working  in  a  field,  near  at  hand, 
but  were  about  going  home  to  supper,  started  hurriedly 
toward  us.  She  made  one  supreme  effort  and  dragged 
her  hand  from  my  grasp,  and  fled  with  Abigail  toward 
the  house.  I  fell  forward  on  my  face  in  the  dust,  the 
most  utterly  wretched  creature  then  drawing  the  breath 
of  life  in  all  the  world.  I  wished  for  death;  I  prayed 
for  it. 

Then  I  heard  the  sound  of  a  horse's  feet  and  the 
rumbling  of  cart-wheels.  I  looked  up.  It  was  a 
negro,  one  of  the  Ruddiman  household,  returning  from 
the  nearest  village.  I  rose  to  my  feet.  Then  I  saw  the 
negroes,  from  the  field,  rapidly  approaching  me  —  near- 
ing  the  fence  that  bounded  the  road.  Their  manner  was 
fierce;  they  were  running  fast.  I  was  not  conscious  of 
any  wrongdoing,  but  I  did  not  want  to  encounter  them; 
and  I  instinctively  darted  into  the  woods.  Life  is  a 
matter  of  habit.  I  had  prayed  for  death —  I  fled  from 
an  unknown  danger, 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

HUNTED   TO   THE   DEATH. 

"Nay,  Warwick,  single  out  some  other  chase; 
For  I  myself  will  hunt  this  wolf  to  death." 

—  3  Henry  VI,  iv,   14. 

1  HEARD  their  outcries;  they  were  searching  for  me. 
I  buried  myself  deeper  in  the  forest.  The 
sounds  ceased.  In  a  little  while,  drawn  by  an  irre 
sistible  impulse,  I  approached  the  road,  that  I  might 
look  once  more  upon  the  house  where  she  dwelt.  I 
reached  a  point  where  I  could  command  a  view  of  the 
highway.  What  was  my  astonishment  to  find  it  full  of 
life  and  bustle!  There  were  Colonel  Ruddiman  and  his 
sons,  with  several  of  their  neighbors,  all  on  horseback, 
and  all  armed,  while  behind  them  came  negroes  on 
foot,  with  hunting-dogs.  I  could  hear  their  voices, 
full  of  animation  and  excitement. 

The  Colonel  was  talking  loudly  to  a  barefooted, 
hatless  negro,  who  ran  by  his  side,  and  I  heard  him 
say: 

"  Where  did  the  d d  rascal  go?  " 

And  the  negro  pointed  down  the  road,  toward  the 
place  where  I  had  entered  the  forest,  and  the  whole 
crowd  rushed  rapidly  in  that  direction. 

What   did  it  all    mean?     Could  they  be  searching 

for  me? 

138 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


139 


And  then  a  sudden  light  dawned  upon  me,  and  I  saw 
the  terrible  position  in  which  I  stood. 

I  had  been  seen  —  I,  a  negro  —  grasping  the  hand  of 
a  white  lady,  on  a  public  road,  and  holding  on  to  it, 
until  she  screamed  and  tore  herself  loose  and  ran  away. 

A  horror  took  possession  of  me.  I  grew  faint.  I 
knew  the  vast  abyss  between  the  races.  I  knew  the 
terrible  wrath  of  the  white  man  against  the  negro  who 
insulted  or  assaulted  a  white  woman;  the  deep,  the  in 
eradicable,  the  awful  wrath,  which  nothing  but  the  life- 
blood  of  the  offender  could  satisfy.  It  was  a  race  in 
stinct —  natural,  tremendous,  inappeasable.  For  that 
crime  there  was  no  mercy.  I  should  be  hanged,  shot, 
torn  limb  from  limb,  perchance  burned  alive.  But  a 
moment  ago  I  had  prayed  for  death;  now  I  bounded 
like  a  deer  into  the  depths  of  the  woods  and  ran,  ran, 
ran,  until  the  increasing  vistas  of  sky  and  cloud, 
through  the  trees,  told  me  I  was  approaching  the  edge 
of  the  forest.  I  turned  and  ran  back  into  the  thick 
gloom.  I  came  to  a  sparkling  rivulet,  singing  its  happy 
way  along  the  greensward.  I  knelt  down  and  drank. 
I  was  very  thirsty.  This  time  I  forgot  the  reflection  of 
my  dark  face  in  the  water.  Then  a  thought  came  to 
me.  I  remembered  the  dogs  which  the  negroes  led. 
They  might  be  bloodhounds.  If  so,  they  were  upon 
my  track.  My  mind  ran  back  over  many  stories  of 
woodcraft.  I  rose  and  walked  up  the  sparkling 
stream,  careful  not  to  break  the  overhanging  boughs; 
stooping  ever  and  anon  to  crouch  and  listen.  After  I 
had  proceeded  about  a  mile  I  saw  the  kind  of  tree  I 
had  been  looking  for;  it  was  a  venerable  forest  mon- 


140 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


arch,  of  great  height  and  dense  foliage,  and  one  giant 
arm  reached  down  so  near  the  water  that  by  a  great 
spring  I  was  able  to  clutch  it.  I  crawled  along  the 
branch  to  the  main  trunk,  and  then  up  and  up  I  climbed 
until  I  was  lost  in  the  great  mass  of  greenery,  one  hun 
dred  feet  from  the  ground.  I  found  a  cross-branch 
where  I  could  stretch  myself  out,  and  there  I  lay,  pant 
ing,  while  the  shadows  crawled  deeper  and  deeper  over 
the  forest.  But,  hark!  what  is  that?  There  was  a  con 
fused  noise  in  the  direction  from  which  I  had  come.  It 
grew  louder.  I  could  distinguish  a  multitude  of  voices 
and  the  baying  of  dogs.  Nearer  and  nearer  it  came. 
The  wood  was  full  of  people.  Some  bore  lanterns,  and 
others  carried  hurriedly-extemporized  torches,  made 
from  fat  pine  splinters.  I  peered  through  the  foliage. 
It  was  a  wild,  weird  scene.  On  both  sides  of  the 
stream  came  the  mob  of  dogs  and  men;  the  former 
snuffling  everywhere  to  recover  the  lost  trail;  the  latter 
inspecting  the  soft  sides  of  the  stream  and  every  bush 
and  tree.  The  fading  light  contended  weirdly  with  the 
red  glare  of  the  torches.  They  came  directly  under 
the  tree.  I  heard  the  Colonel's  voice  commanding, 
"  Halt!" 

"  Jim,"  he  said,  to  a  neighbor,  "  a  smart  darkey 
might  have  jumped  to  that  hanging  limb." 

"  Yes,  Colonel,"  was  the  reply;  "  it  is  considerable 
of  a  jump,  but  it  might  be  done." 

"  Boys,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  give  us  a  volley  into  that 
tree-top  —  there  where  the  leaves  are  thickest." 

And  before  I  could  realize  my  danger  there  was  a 
roar  of  guns,  and  the  bullets  were  whizzing  and  hum- 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  141 

ming  all  around  me,  and  the  leaves  fell  upon  me  in  a 
shower. 

"  Give  'em  another  one,"  cried  the  Colonel,  and  I 
crouched  together  into  the  smallest  compass,  and  mut 
tered  a  prayer  of  my  childhood,  when  again  the  guns 
roared  and  the  foliage  around  me  was  full  of  sounds 
and  flying  leaves. 

"  I  don't  think  any  living  thing  is  up  there,  Colonel," 
said  one  of  the  men,  "  or  he  would  have  dropped." 

"  I  guess  that's  so,"  said  the  Colonel;  "  you  might  as 
well  move  on,  boys.  And,  Major  Berrisford,  will  you 
be  kind  enough  to  send  one  of  your  men  to  the  nearest 
farm-house,  for  some  more  torches?  We  will  be  in  the 
dark  soon." 

And  so  the  dreadful  procession  moved  up  the  little 
stream,  giving  out  great  red  lines  of  light  that  flashed 
and  penetrated  far  into  the  depths  of  the  forest,  while 
the  not  unmusical  tumult  of  mingling  voices,  human 
and  animal,  rang  far  and  wide. 

"  Hunted  like  a  wild  beast!  "  I  said  to  myself.  "  I, 
Doctor  Anthony  Huguet  —  the  peaceful  current  of 
whose  happy  life  was,  but  yesterday,  the  envy  of  all 
beholders;  I,  the  cultured  and  scholarly  denizen  of  the 
world;  the  exemplar  and  pattern  of  the  community; 
rich,  prosperous,  respected,  honored  —  all  all  this  but 
yesterday; — now  I  am  a  black  man,  a  great,  hulking, 
hideous  black  man,  hidden  in  the  top  of  a  high  tree, 
while  those  who  were  my  dearest  friends  are  hunting 
for  me  to  murder  me !  My  God  !  "  I  said,  "  could  the 
whole  varied  panorama  of  human  fortune  afford  another 
such  spectacle?  " 


142 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


I  was  safe  for  a  little  time,  but  what  of  the  future? 
I  knew  enough  of  the  practices  of  the  people  in  such 
cases.  The  wood  I  was  in  was  part  of  the  primeval 
forest  —  of  considerable  size  —  left  undisturbed  in  the 
settlement  of  the  country,  but  surrounded  on  all  sides 
by  plantations.  I  knew  that  my  pursuers,  for  the 
whole  country-side  had  evidently  turned  out  for  the 
exciting  man-hunt,  would  place  a  cordon  of  guards 
around  the  forest,  and  to-morrow  they  would  advance 
steadily,  from  all  directions,  toward  the  center,  exam 
ining  every  tree  that  could  shelter  me.  And  if  they 
failed  to  find  me  in  that  way,  they  would  keep  up  the 
blockade  until  hunger  forced  me  out  into  the  open 
fields,  where  I  would  be  seized  upon  at  the  first  house 
I  approached  for  food.  There  was  but  one  course  left 
for  me  to  take.  That  was  to  get  my  bearings,  by  the 
glow  which  yet  lingered  in  the  western  sky,  and  if  pos 
sible  find  the  north  star,  and  then  take  advantage  of 
the  darkness  of  the  night,  to  reach  that  part  of  the 
forest  nearest  my  home,  and  run  the  risk  of  getting 
past  the  line  of  sentinels  posted  in  the  highway.  If  I 

succeeded  I  would  be  back  in  C before  daylight. 

If  I  was  caught  —  well,  that  would  be  the  end  of  me 
and  my  troubles. 

I  climbed  still  higher  until  through  the  parted  leaves 
I  could  see  the  stars.  It  was  not  long  until  I  had 
found  the  north  star  —  that  kindly  guide  of  mariner 
and  wanderer  for  ages  before  the  discovery  of  the 
magnetic  needle,  whose  "  true,  fixed  quality  "  has  been 
the  theme  of  the  poet  in  all  languages.  By  the  dim 
light  I  determined  the  north  direction  from  the  tree, 


•DOCTOR  HUGUET.  143 

fixing  it  by  an  ancient  walnut  at  some  little  distance. 
I  trusted  to  occasional  glimpses  of  the  heavens  for  my 
future  guidance.  I  waited  until  I  thought  it  was  about 
ten  or  eleven  o'clock,  when  1  began  to  descend  the 
tree  quietly,  and  reached  the  ground  at  last,  my 
clothes  somewhat  damaged  by  spurs  and  branches. 
Then  I  found  the  walnut  tree,  and  from  the  line  be 
tween  the  two  I  advanced  at  a  right  angle,  to  the  east, 
the  direction  I  was  to  take.  I  proceeded  slowly,  list 
ening,  and  starting  at  every  sound,  bumping  against 
tree-trunks  and  falling  over  rotten  logs.  Occasionally 
I  caught  glimpses  of  the  sky,  and  corrected  my  direc 
tion.  Finally,  after  about  two  hours  of  walking,  I 
perceived  that  I  was  getting  to  the  end  of  the  forest, 
and  proceeded  with  increased  caution.  Stepping  with 
cat-like  tread,  and  peering  into  the  darkness,  I  reached 
at  length  the  wagon-road  which  skirted  the  wood.  If 
I  could  pass  this  I  would  be  comparatively  safe.  I 
could  not  help  but  think  that  this  body  I  bore  had 
been  trained  in  many  such  midnight  exercises,  under 
the  direction  of  its  former  owner,  and  that  every  fac 
ulty  and  movement  seemed  to  be  perfectly  adapted  to 
the  work. 

I  scanned  the  road,  right  and  left,  as  far  as  my  keen 
eyes  could  penetrate;  and  I  listened  carefully  for  the 
slightest  sound.  The  silence  was  profound,  save  for 
that  thin  undertone  of  insect  life,  which  seems  to  be 
the  breathing  of  great  Nature  when  she  sleeps  her  pro- 
foundest  sleep. 

I  crept  slowly  down  the  bank;  I  crossed  the  little 
ditch  made  by  the  road-builders;  I  stepped  hurriedly 


1 44  £>° c TOR 

across  the  wide,  beaten  highway;  I  descended  into  the 
other  ditch;  I  crossed  it;  my  heart  rose;  I  would  be  in 
the  fields  in  another  moment  and  far  away;  I  climbed 
the  little  ascent  to  a  snake-fence;  I  leaned  my  whole 
weight  upon  the  top  rail  to  spring  over,  when,  with  a 
loud  snap,  it  broke,  and  the  fence  crumbled  under  me. 
My  cursed  fate  was  still  pursuing  me. 

A  quick,  fierce  voice  cried  out: 

"  Who  goes  there?  " 

The  next  instant  a  bright  flash  filled  the  road,  and 
there  was  the  loud  explosion  of  a  gun.  And  then 
bang,  bang,  came  the  reports  of  two  other  guns.  I 
had  fallen  with  the  rotten  fence;  before  I  could  rise  the 
whole  road  was  alive;  I  felt  a  sharp  pain  in  my 
shoulder;  a  large  dog  had  seized  me.  I  struggled  to 
rise,  but  before  I  could  regain  my  feet  a  dozen  hands 
had  clutched  me,  and  a  dozen  rifles  and  revolvers  were 
pointed  at  my  face. 

"  Quick  here,  bring  a  light!" 

A  farmer's  boy  came  running,  bearing  a  flaming  pine 
torch.  A  great  crowd  had  gathered,  for  the  alarm  had 
passed  along  the  line.  They  thrust  the  light  into  my 
face. 

Doctor  Magrudcr  seemed  in  command. 

"  Who  knows  him?  "  asked  the  Doctor.  A  score  of 
voices  cried,  "  That's  him!  "  More  than  half  the  crowd 
were  negroes — and  they  seemed  more  zealous  in  the 
hunt  than  the  whites. 

"Which  one  of  you  can  identify  him?  "asked  the 
Doctor.  There  was  great  commotion,  but  no  one 
answered. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


But  one  burly  fellow,  a  white  man,  did  not  intend  to 
be  deprived  of  the  sacrifice  he  had  expected. 

"  Why,  Doctor,"  said  he,  "  this  must  be  the  scoun 
drel.  He  is  a  stranger  here.  Nobody  knows  him. 
And  we  find  him  stealing  out  of  the  timber  at  midnight, 
sneaking  away.  Let's  hang  him  anyhow!" 

And  still  from  up  and  down  the  road  the  crowd 
gathered,  the  torches  and  lanterns  flickering  in  every 
direction,  and  the  cry  was  out  everywhere,  "  He  is 
caught!"  "He  is  caught!"  And  every  accession  to 
the  crowd  increased  its  ferocity.  I  gave  myself  up  for 
lost.  They  glared  upon  me  like  wild  beasts.  It  was 
a  sea  of  enraged  faces.  Doctor  Magruder,  in  the  cen 
ter,  held  me  by  the  collar.  He  was  a  just  man  and 
loved  fair  play,  but  there  was  no  kindness  in  the  way 
in  which  he  shook  me,  and  roared: 

"  You  d d  rascal,  are  you  the  man  that  assaulted 

Miss  Ruddiman?" 

"  Doctor,"  I  replied,  "  I  never  assaulted  or  insulted 
Miss  Ruddiman,  or  any  other  woman." 

Here  a  negro  appeared  with  a  rope,  and  the  excite 
ment  of  the  crowd  became  intense.  They  swayed  and 
pushed  me  back  and  forth,  and  a  dozen  brawny  hands 
clutched  me  to  drag  me  to  my  doom.  I  felt  something 
around  my  neck.  The  negro  had  flung  a  slip-knot 
over  my  head,  but  before  the  crowd  could  pull  it  tight 
Doctor  Magruder  threw  it  off.  I  shall  never  forget,  to 
my  dying  day,  that  dreadful  array  of  furious  eyes,  each 
one  fastened  on  my  own,  as  if  they  would  strike  me 
dead  with  their  burning,  basilisk  looks,  and  every  man 


146  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

pressing  to  seize  me.  Only  Doctor  Magruder  stood 
firm. 

"  Boys,"  he  said,  "  let  us  have  fair  play.  It  is  true 

he  is  a  nigger,  and  a  d d  mean-looking  one  at  that, 

but  we  haven't  a  particle  of  evidence  that  he  is  the  man 
who  assaulted  Miss  Ruddiman.  We  don't  want  to  kill 
an  innocent  man.  It  wouldn't  be  a  nice  thing  to  think 
of  when  we  come  to  die  ourselves." 

The  crowd  grew  quieter. 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  we'll  do,  boys,"  the  Doctor  con 
tinued.  "  It  isn't  very  far  to  Colonel  Ruddiman's.  Let 
us  go  there,  and  get  Miss  Mary  to  identify  him.  If  she 
says  he's  the  man,  you  may  make  a  bonfire  of  him,  for 
all  I  care.  But  you  remember  what  Colonel  Crockett 
used  to  say:  'Be  sure  you're  right,  then  go 
ahead  !  ' ' 

This  proposition  was  accepted  with  cheers.  Its  logic 
was  unanswerable.  And  so  the  procession  moved  up 
the  road,  I  in  the  center,  with  a  dozen  hands  grasping 
me.  The  negro  with  the  rope  close  behind  me.  The 
whole  swarming,  turbulent  mass  of  blacks  and  whites 
around  me.  The  glare  of  the  torches  lit  up  the  sky, 
and  from  every  house  and  cabin  additions  flocked  to 
swell  the  mighty  mass.  Long  before  we  reached  the 
Ruddiman  mansion  runners  had  gone  ahead  to  waken 
the  family  with  the  startling  news  that  the  criminal  had 
been  caught,  and  that  they  were  bringing  him  to  be 
identified  and  punished. 

My  God!  Who  is  this  comes  running  to  meet  us? 
I  saw  the  white-clad  figure  of  a  woman;  she  flew  over 
the  ground;  negroes  and  whites  parted  before  her;  her 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


147 


dress  was  disarranged,  her  great  eyes  blazing.  It  was 
Abigail. 

She  rushed  forward,  placed  her  hand  on  my  arm, 
and  cried  out,  in  a  voice  of  command: 

"Let  him  go!  Take  your  hands  off!  This  man 
never  harmed  any  one  !  " 

Lord  !  how  my  heart  rose  with  a  great  heave  in  my 
breast.  The  whole  world  was  black  as  Erebus  but  a 
moment  before.  Yes;  in  the  whole  world  there  was 
no  creature  loved  me.  Death  encircled  me;  the  rope 
dangled  behind  me;  all  nature  hated  me.  And  here 
was  this  splendid,  this  magnificent  woman,  forgetting 
in'  an  instant  her  natural  modesty,  and  all  the  social 
limitations  of  her  sex,  and  rushing  to  my  rescue,  as  the 
tigress  leaps  through  the  hunters  to  the  protection  of 
her  young. 

"  God  bless  you,  Abigail,"  I  said,  and  the  great 
tears  ran  down  my  face  in  streams.  "  God  bless  you 
and  love  you  forever  !  " 

"  Doctor  Magruder,"  she  said,  to  the  Doctor,  who 
had  come  forward,  "  I  was  at  the  interview  out  of 
which  all  this  miserable  trouble  arose.  It  is  a  great 
mistake.  This  man  is  innocent." 

"  Well,"  said  the  Doctor,  "  I  am  glad  to  hear  you 
say  so,  Abigail;  but  here  comes  Miss  Mary,  and  we 
have  agreed  to  leave  the  whole  matter  to  her  decision." 

Quick  as  a  flash  Abigail  turned  and  darted  through 
the  crowd  in  the  direction  of  Col.  Ruddiman  and  his 
daughter,  who  were  advancing  toward  us,  and  I  could 
see  her  gesticulating  and  talking  with  fierce  earnestness 
to  her  cousin. 


748  DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 

The  crowd  parted  as  the  Colonel  advanced  with 
Mary  on  his  arm.  I  watched  her  face,  and  she  scanned 
mine  with  keen  interest.  Abigail  followed  her.  . 

Doctor  Magruder  lifted  his  hat  courteously,  and  said: 

"  Miss  Rudditnan,  we  have  captured  a  negro  who  is 
believed  to  be  the  man  who  insulted  you  this  afternoon 
on  the  public  road;  but  before  punishing  him  we 
thought  it  but  just  that  he  should  be  identified  by  you. 
Is  this  the  man?  " 

"  Yes,"  she  replied,  "  that  is  the  man." 

In  an  instant  the  negro  behind  me  slipped  the  rope 
over  my  head,  and  the  crowd  swayed  to  and  fro,  mur 
muring,  and  deeply  excited. 

"  But,"  she  added,  "  he  did  not  assault  or  insult  me. 
He  simply  knelt  on  the  ground  and  begged  a  favor  of 
me.  His  manner  toward  me  was  perfectly  respectful, 
and  his  speech  far  beyond  his  apparent  station  in 
life." 

Doctor  Magruder  quietly  lifted  the  rope  from  around 
my  neck,  and  said: 

"  Then  you  do  not  desire  him  punished?  " 

"  Oh,  no!  not  at  all.  He  did  nothing  to  deserve 
punishment." 

"Well,  boys,"  said  the  Doctor,  "you'll  have  to 
give  up  your  bonfire  this  time.  I  guess  we  will  have 
to  let  the  fellow  go. " 

Their  hands  released  me,  and  I  stood  in  the  middle 
of  the  road,  once  more  a  free  man. 

But  my  troubles  were  not  yet  over. 

"  Miss  Ruddiman,"  said  the  Doctor,  again  with  up 
lifted  hat,  "  do  you  know  anything  about  this  fellow?  " 


DOCTOR  IIUCUET. 


149 


"  No,"  she  replied;  "  I  never  saw  him  before  this 
afternoon." 

"  Have  you  any  objection,  then,  to  our  arresting  him 
and  finding  out  something  about  him?  He  is  a 
stranger  here  to  everybody,  and  seems  to  be  a  kind  of 
vagrant." 

"  I  have  no  objection  whatever,"  said  Miss  Mary,  af 
fecting,  as  I  thought,  an  indifference  which  she  did  not 
feel  really;  for  while  she  had  not,  for  one  instant,  be 
lieved  that  I  was  Doctor  Huguet,  there  was  enough 
about  the  conversation  I  had  held  with  her  to  perplex 
and  interest  her. 

"  See  here,  my  man,"  said  Doctor  Magruder  to  me, 
"  where  do  you  belong?  " 

"  I  live  in  C ,"  I  replied. 

"  What  is  your  name?  "  he  asked. 

I  did  not  at  once  answer.  I  looked  into  the  faces  of 
Abigail  and  Mary: — the  first  regarded  me  with  pity, 
the  last  with  curiosity. 

"  Come,  answer,"  said  the  Doctor;  "  what  is  your 
name?  " 

Should  I  lie  and  deny  myself?  Or  should  I  speak 
the  truth  and  be  laughed  at?  But  what  did  I  care  for 
laughter?  Low  as  I  had  fallen,  I  would  not  acknowl 
edge  the  name  of  the  wretched  chicken-thief.  It  stuck 
in  my  throat  like  Macbeth 's  "  Amen."  I  could  not 
pronounce  it.  I  lifted  my  head  boldly  and  said  in  a 
clear,  loud  voice: 

"  My  name  is  Doctor  Anthony  Huguet!" 

Abigail  smiled  a  smile  of  approval.  Mary  looked 
astonished.  There  was  silence  for  a  time.  It  took  a 


150  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

little  while  for  the  prodigious  statement  to  work  its 
way  through  the  understandings  of  my  hearers.  The 
white  men  grasped  "the  conception  first;  they  smiled; 
then  they  laughed;  the  negroes  took  it  up;  there  was 
a  roar  and  burst  of  apparently  inextinguishable 
laughter.  Now  and  then  would  come  a  lull,  and  it 
would  break  out,  and  rise  and  fall  again  and  again, 
like  a  storm.  The  white  men  held  their  sides  and 
laughed;  the  negroes  cracked  their  thighs  and  danced 
and  shouted. 

"  Why,"  said  Doctor  Magruder,  "  the  man's  crazy." 

And  the  mob  roared  louder  than  ever.  The  idea  of 
a  crazy  negro,  who  thought  himself  a  white  man,  and 
such  a  white  man!  was  too  ridiculous;  laughter  gave 
but  a  feeble  expression  of  their  immense  internal  mer 
riment.  They  grew  helpless  with  jocularity.  I  could 
have  tied  all  my  recent  captors  with  wisps  of  straw. 

But  through  all  this  tempest  and  uproar  I  stood  like 
an  ugly  statue  of  Hercules, —  carved  out  of  ebony, — 
grim  and  smileless. 

"O  fools!"  I  said  at  last,  "that  cannot  see  the 
immortal  spirit  of  the  man  through  the  cloudy  covering 
of  the  flesh.  You  read  no  further  than  this  mask-like 
face;  you  cannot  see  the  mind  that  glows  and  burns 
within.  To  you  the  lamp  is  more  than  the  light." 

There  was  dead  silence.  Never  before,  in  South 
Carolina,  had  such  a  speech  been  heard  to  issue  from 
a  black  man's  lips.  The  sheer  force  of  my  outraged 
intellect  had  risen  to  a  certain  level  of  stern  dignity, 
in  spite  of  all  the  rude  assaults  and  injustices  of  fortune. 


DOCTOR  HUG UET.  I  5  I 

I  forgot  my  love  and  my  sorrows.     I  was  a  man  again, 
commanding  men  by  the  power  of  my  soul. 

If  you  have  no  further  business  with  me,"  I  said, 
raising  my  hat  courteously  to  the  ladies,  "  and  if  I  have 
already  contributed  sufficiently  to  your  amusement, 
you  will  pardon  me  for  withdrawing." 

And  I  turned  my  back  upon  them  and  strode 
away. 

"  By  the  Lord  Harry,"  said  Doctor  Magruder,  "  that's 
the  most  wonderful  nigger  I  ever  met.  He  talks  with 
the  eloquence  of  a  Calhoun,  and  marches  off,  in  his 
rags,  with  the  dignity  of  a  Chesterfield.  Look  at  him! 
You  would  think  he  owned  the  highway.  Well !  I'll 
be  d d!" 

But  what  a  sense  of  exaltation  came  over  me!  Out 
of  the  very  wells  and  caverns  of  humiliation  I  had 
climbed  to  the  light.  I  had  risen  upon  the  wings  of 
my  own  soul.  I  had  found  that  there  is  that  in  the 
mind  of  man  that  can  survive  "  the  wreck  of  matter  and 
the  crash  of  worlds."  Only  the  cowardly  fall.  The 
brave  man  dares  all  the  bolts  of  fate.  Death  simply 
releases  him  from  unfortunate  conditions.  The  mind 
is  god-like  —  it  is  God.  I  would  make  this  black  hide 
as  glorious  as  the  crippled  figure  of  the  slave  ^Esop, 
or  the  satyr-like  features  of  the  persecuted  Socrates. 

And,  so  thinking,  even  the  image  of  Mary  grew  dim. 
for  a  time,  and,  full  of  high  resolves,  and  with  head 
erect,  I  marched  back  to  C — ^-.  There  Ben  sheltered 
me,  and,  after  listening,  with  distended  mouth  and 
eyes,  to  my  wonderful  story,  gave  me  food  and  a  bed 
in  one  of  the  garrets.  He  told  me,  before  leaving  me, 


152 


DOCTOR  HUGUET, 


that  Doctor  Huguet — the  new  Doctor  Huguet — had 
been  carried  home  at  midnight,  dead  drunk,  and  in 
that  condition  he  had  put  him  to  bed,  where  he  now 
lay  snoring. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

IN   THE   COURT-ROOM    AGAIN. 

"  If  you  be  ta'en,  we  then  should  see  the  bottom 
Of  all  our  fortunes." 

— 2  Henry  VI.,  v.  2. 

IT  WAS    the   afternoon  of  the    second    day  of  my 
imprisonment  in  Sam  Johnsing's  body.     Tired  and 
worn  out,  I    had  slept   through  the  morning.     After 
dinner  I  set  out  for  a  walk,  and  to  think  over  my  plans 
for  the  future. 

How  could  I  rise  above  my  condition?  I  had 
intellect,  education,  eloquence,  energy.  Surely  a  black 
skin  could  be  no  impediment  to  all  these  powers  of  the 
soul.  "  It  is  the  mind,"  the  great  poet  says,  "  that 
makes  the  body  rich. "  Yes;  I  reYnembered  the  pas 
sage: 

"  For  'tis  the  mind  that  makes  the  body  rich  ; 
And,  as  the  sun  breaks  through  the  darkest  clouds, 
So  honor  peereth  through  the  meanest  habit. 
What !   is  the  jay  more  precious  than  the  lark, 
Because  his  feathers  are  more  beautiful  ? 
Or  is  the  adder  better  than  the  eel, 
Because  his  painted  skin  contents  the  eye  ?  " 

This  terrible  race-prejudice,  I  said  to  myself,  has 
continued  to  exist  because  there  are  no  great  scholars, 
thinkers  and  speakers,  of  the  negro  race,  to  challenge 

and  overcome  it.     White  men  could  not  have  been  sup- 

153 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


pressed  in  that  fashion!  I  will  lead  the  way!  That  may 
have  been  the  purpose  for  which  this  ghastly  transfor 
mation  has  been  inflicted  upon  me.  And  I  swelled 
with  pride  in  anticipation  of  my  triumphs,  close  at 
hand. 

I  walked  on,  full  of  these  high  thoughts,  muttering  to 
myself,  when  a  heavy  hand  was  laid  upon  my  shoulder. 
I  turned  and  found  myself  confronted  by  a  policeman. 
I  knew  him  well  —  an  honest,  over-officious  fellow. 
'  "  See  here,  nig,"  he  said,  "  where  you  goin'  ?  " 
This  was  a  rude  awakening  from  my  reverie,  and  I 
made  no  answer.     The  policeman  spoke  again: 

"  I  see  you  comin'  out  of  Doctor  Huguet's  house. 
What  was  you  a-doin'  there?" 

"  I  was  visiting  Ben,"  I  replied;  "  he  is  an  old  friend 
of  mine." 

"  An  old  friend  of  yours  !  "  was  the  answer.  "  Do  you 
think  I  don't  know  you,  Sam?  You  hadn't  clothes 
enough  to  cover  you  yesterday,  and  now  you  are  tif- 
ficked  out  grand.  Where  did  you  get  that  five-dollar 
hat?" 

And  with  this  he  rudely  grabbed  the  hat  from  my 
head,  and  looked  into  it. 

"  Whew!"  he  said;  "  Doctor  Huguet's  hat!  Is  that 
your  lay,  you  black  rascal?  Got  above  chickens  this 
time,  and  taken  to  high-priced  clothes,  hey?  Kind  o' 
risin'  in  the  world,  Sam.  Shouldn't  wonder  if  ye'd  try 
burglary  next,  and  become  respectable.  Come  along, 
Sam.  I  knows  a  gentleman  down  street  that  wants  to 
have  a  talk  with  you  very  bad.  A  very  friendly, 
pleasant  gentleman  he  is,  too.  I  guess  you  know  him, 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


155 


Sam;  visited  him   several  times   afore   in   his   private 
parlor." 

I  thought  of  resisting,  but  the  formidable  club  came 
out,  and  I  saw  that  it  would  be  useless  to  struggle;  and 
with  a  heavy  heart  I  walked  beside  my  captor  to  the 
station-house.  I  heard  the  heavy  door  clank  behind 
me,  and  I  sat  down  upon  the  rude  bed,  utterly  dejected 
and  hopeless.  My  philosophy  was  all  gone.  Honor 
did  not  peer  through  the  meanest  habit.  The  mind 
did  not  make  the  body  rich.  All  that  was  fiction,  not 
fact.  I  thought  of  Mary's  favorite  quotation: 

"  'Tis  place, 
Not  blood,  discerns  the  noble  from  the  base." 

And  it  seemed  to  me  that  Ben  Jonson  had  come 
nearer  to  the  truth  than  Shakespeare. 

"  What,  Sam!"  said  the  judge,  as  I  rose,  at  the  call  of 
my  new  name;  "  here  again  ?  What  have  you  been 
a-doing  this  time  ?" 

I  did  not  speak. 

"  Stealing,  your  honor,"  replied  the  clerk. 

"  The  same  old  story,"  said  the  judge.  "  What  did 
he  steal  ?" 

"  Doctor  Huguet's  hat,"  said  the  constable.  "  I  saw 
him  comin'  out  of  Doctor  Huguet's  house  yesterday, 
and,  knowin'  his  character,  I  arrested  him,  and  found 
him  wearin'  this  hat." 

And  the  constable  handed  up  the  hat  to  the  judge. 

"  Clear  case,  Sam,"  said  the  judge,  after  reading  the 


156 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


inscription  inside  the  hat.  "  How  did  you  get  this 
hat?" 

I  hesitated  before  answering.  I  knew  that  if  I  stated 
that  Ben  had  given  it  to  me,  the  faithful  fellow  might 
get  into  trouble,  and  might  even  lose  his  place.  And 
so  I  replied: 

"  It  is  my  hat.      I  am  Doctor  Huguet." 

"  Come,  come,"  said  the  judge,  frowning,  "  that 
joke  is  played  out.  It  was  well  enough  for  one  occa 
sion,  but  it  is  monotonous  when  repeated.  Is  Doctor 
Huguet  here?  " 

"  Yes,  your  honor,"  replied  the  constable;  "  I  sent 
for  him  this  morning.  Here  he  comes." 

I  turned,  and  saw  myself  advancing  through  the  door 
of  the  court-room  —  myself,  but  badly  changed  by 
drink  and  dissipation.  The  face  was  pale,  the  eyes 
watery,  the  hands  trembled.  He  advanced  timidly, 
glancing  from  right  to  left  round  the  room,  which  was 
only  too  familiar  to  him. 

"  Doctor  Huguet,"  said  the  judge,  courteously,  "  I 
am  sorry  to  have  troubled  you,  but  we  have  a  negro 
here  who  has  been  arrested  with  a  hat  in  his  possession, 
with  your  name  written  in  it,  and  you  have  been  sent  for 
to  identify  it  as  your  property.  The  most  amusing  part 
of  the  matter  is  that  he  says  he  is  himself  Doctor 
Huguet  !  " 

Sam's  face  grew  pallid  at  these  last  words,  and  he 
turned  round  until  his  eyes  encountered  mine.  He  saw 
his  old  self  standing  before  him,  and  he  shook  like  an 
aspen  leaf.  He  fell  back  as  if  he  would  retreat  from  the 
room.  Every  one  observed  his  terror. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


157 


"  Hold  on,  Doctor,"  said  the  judge;  "  your  testi 
mony  is  absolutely  necessary." 

I  could  see  Sam  bracing  himself  and  rallying  his 
faculties,  while  he  looked  at  me  vindictively. 

"  Swear  Doctor  Huguet,"  said  the  judge.  The  oath 
was  administered  by  the  clerk. 

"  Doctor,"  said  the  judge,  "examine  that  hat  and 
say  whether  or  not  it  is  yours." 

Sam  scarcely  took  his  eyes  off  my  face,  or  looked  at 
the  hat,  while  he  replied: 

"  Yes,  sah." 

"  Did  you  give  it  to  the  prisoner  ?  " 

"  No,  sah." 

"  You  didn't  sell  it  or  give  it  to  any  one  ?  " 

"  No,  sah." 

"That  is  sufficient,  Doctor." 

At  this  I  cried  out  in  thunder  tones  : 

"  Sam  Johnsing,  you  d d  chicken-thief,  drop  that 

hat  !  " 

The  hat  dropped  instantly,  and  Sam  reeled  under 
the  words  as  if  he  had  been  struck  a  heavy  blow.  He 
glared  wildly  around  him. 

"  How  dare  you  address  a  white  man  in  that  way, 
you  miserable  nigger?"  exclaimed  the  constable. 

He  a  white  man  !"  I  cried.  "  He  is  the  soul  of  Sam 
Johnsing,  the  chicken-thief,  in  the  body  of  Doctor 
Huguet.  /am  Doctor  Huguet !" 

"  Crazy  again,"  said  the  judge. 

"  No,  Judge,  not  crazy,"  I  replied.  "  Ask  that  man 
to  spell  out  his  own  name  in  that  hat.  He  cannot  do 
it.  He  does  not  know  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet. 


1^8  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

Hand  me  yonder  copy  of  the  statutes,  and  I  will  read  it 
for  you,  Latin  phrases  and  all." 

There  was  a  great  sensation  in  the  court-room.  The 
judge  looked  curiously  at  me  and  at  Sam.  That  worthy 
clung  to  the  sides  of  the  witness-box  for  support.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  the  judge  thought  for  a  moment  of 
applying  the  test  I  had  proposed.  But  no  evidence 
could  overcome  the  evidence  of  his  own  senses.  There 
stood  the  white  man,  Doctor  Huguet,  and  there  the 
black  man,  Sam  Johnsing.  How  could  the  one  be  the 
other  ?  It  was  absurd.  And  so  he  said,  politely,  to 
the  Doctor: 

"  Doctor  Huguet,  the  court  will  excuse  you." 

Sam  looked  at  him  vacantly. 

"  You  can  go." 

Sam  rushed  for  the  door. 

"  Sam  Johnsing,"  he  said  roughly  to  me,  "  I  did 
intend  to  send  you  to  jail  for  three  months  for  insulting 
a  white  man,  as  well  as  for  larceny.  But  I  don't  think 
it  right  to  burden  the  county  with  the  expense  of  sup 
porting  such  a  miserable  wretch  for  so  long  a  time. 
You  will,  therefore,  stand  committed  for  thirty  days. 
Jones  "  (to  the  constable),  "  take  him  to  jail." 

"  May  it  please  your  honor,"  I  said,  "  you  are  send 
ing  me  to  prison  for  stealing  my  own  hat.  I  told  you 
the  truth.  I  am  Doctor  Huguet.  By  a  dreadful  visi 
tation  of  Providence  I  have  been  forced  to  exchange 
bodies  with  that,  miserable  wretch,  Sam  Johnsing,  and 
he  is  now  masquerading  in  my  body.  You  think  this 
is  impossible.  The  possible  and  the  impossible  simply 
represent  the  limits  of  our  experience.  Who  can  say 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


159 


what  is  possible  or  impossible  in  a  universe  of  which 
\ve  know  so  little?  A  miracle  may  be  simply  an  ex 
tension  of  our  experience.  I  have  offered  to  submit 
to  a  test.  I  will  submit  to  any  test  you  may  apply. 
You  know  that  Sam  Johnsing  was  an  ignorant,  a  most 
ignorant,  degraded  fellow.  Bring  me  your  Greek, 
Latin,  French  and  German  books,  and  I  will  translate 
them  for  you.  Send  for  one  of  your  physicians,  and 
let  him  examine  me  in  the  most  recondite  studies  of 
his  profession.  Call  in  your  college  professors,  and  I 
will  challenge  them  to  a  discussion  of  the  literatures  of 
the  world.  Give  me  an  opportunity  to  defend  my 
right  to  be  what  I  am.  Summon  the  scientists  of  the 
world  to  examine  my  case.  Do  not  treat  me  as  a 
criminal  and  send  me  to  prison." 

The  judge  sat  with  open-eyed  astonishment  as  these 
cultured  and  elevated  sentences  poured  from  my  thick 
lips.  He  was  lost  in  wonder  at  the  contrast  between 
what  I  appeared  to  be  and  that  which  I  said  —  between 
what  he  knew  of  Sam's  past  career  and  that  which 
came  out  of  my  mouth.  But  it  was  plain  that,  great 
as  was  his  surprise,  he  did  not  for  one  instant  entertain 
the  slightest  belief  that  I  was  really  Doctor  Huguet,  or 
that  such  an  exchange  of  bodies,  as  I  had  asserted,  could 
be  possible.  He  was  simply  overwhelmed  with  sur 
prise  and  perplexity. 

There  was  dead  silence  in  the  court-room  for  a 
minute  or  two.  At  last  the  constable  who  had  arrested 
me,  and  who  now  had  his  hand  upon  the  collar  of  my 
coat,  cried  out: 

"  Why,  the  nigger's  bewitched  !  " 


160  DOCTOR  TIUGUET. 

This  explanation  seemed  very  reasonable  to  court 
and  spectators;  and  the  constable,  with  the  air  of  a 
man  who  has  successfully  solved  a  puzzling  conundrum, 
marched  me  off,  bare-headed,  to  the  county  jail. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

IN   JAIL. 

"  I  have  been  studying  how  I  may  compare 
This  prison,  where  I  live,  unto  the  world." 

—  Richard  II.  ,  v. 


of  my  fortune  and  convicted  of  stealing 
my  own  hat  !  " 

I  smiled  a  grim,  bitter  smile  as  I  sat  upon  the  side  of 
the  iron  cot  and  looked  at  the  bare  walls  and  the  high 
barred  window,  through  which  a  gush  of  sunshine  fell 
and  blazed  upon  the  stone  floor. 

Was  ever  any  other  poor  wretch  on  earth  punished 
by  such  violent  contrasts  of  fate?  My  own  hat,  which 
I  had  bought  and  paid  for  with  my  own  money,  handed 
me  by  my  own  servant,  employed  and  paid  by  me,  — 
and  here  I  am  in  prison  for  having  purloined  it!  Here 
I  am,  with  all  the  education  possessed  by  any  man  in 
the  commonwealth,  and  I  can  get  no  one  to  believe 
that  I  am  anything  but  a  wretched,  illiterate  negro;  a 
sneak-thief,  a  marauder  of  chicken-coops  and  hen-roosts 
and  clothes-lines!  It  is  horrible!  Even  when  I  stood 
up  there  in  the  court-room,  and,  in  choice  and  even  el 
oquent  language,  demanded  that  I  be  put  to  the  test  of 
scholarship  with  the  wretch  who  bore  my  person  about 
with  him,  I  could  not  get  a  hearing.  Oh,  the  brutal 
impassiveness  of  public  opinion  under  the  domination 
of  prejudice!  It  is  stolid.  It  is  colossal. 

ii  161 


I  62  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

The  noise  in  the  court-room  was  gone.  I  was  alone. 
I  would  think. 

"  Had  I  left  anything  undone  that  it  was  in  my  power 
to  do,  to  prevent  or  avert  these  misfortunes?" 

I  thought  back  all  along  the  line  of  events  since  I 
had  wakened  in  the  stifling  air  of  the  negro  hut,  and  I 
tried  to  find  a  flaw,  a  point  where  I  might  have  acted 
differently.  There  was  not  one.  I  was  simply  power 
less.  My  mind  was  as  bright  and  active,  my  knowl 
edge  as  great,  as  it  was  before  this  great  calamity  fell 
upon  me.  And  I  had  acted  wisely,  under  all  the  cir 
cumstances. 

Why,  then,  had  I  failed  ? 

Failed?  How  could  I  help  but  fail?  It  was  this 
dreadful  black  skin  that  dragged  me  down.  This  it 
was  that  had  rendered  education,  knowledge,  wisdom^ 
energy,  of  no  avail.  This  was  the  impassable  wall 
against  which  I  might  plunge  in  vain.  It  rose  up,  up, 
all  around  me,  until  it  hid  the  very  face  of  heaven 
from  my  gaze;  it  closed  me  in  more  completely  than 
the  walls  of  the  cell;  and  there  was  no  window  of  hope 
in  it  through  which  the  bright  sunshine  could  stream 
to  illumine  my  gloom. 

Ay,  there  was  the  rub.  The  utter  hopelessness  of 
my  condition!  When  that  mighty  Spirit,  in  some 
divine  freak  of  thought  or  purpose,  put  forth  His 
terrible  power,  and  plunged  me  into  this  dreadful 
abyss,  He  intended  to  punish  me  for  having  been  false 
to  my  own  conscience.  And  how  long  did  He  intend 
that  this  punishment  should  endure?  That  was  the 
question.  Would  I  carry  this  horror  to  the  grave? 


DOCTOR  HUG  UE  T.  \  63 

Would  I  rot  in  the  carcass  of  Sam  Johnsing?  Would 
the  worms  riot  under  this  black  skin?  And  would 
even  the  grave  —  dreadful  thought!  —  terminate  my 
sufferings?  Should  I  not  go  into  other  regions  of  life 
disqualified  and  degraded?  Should  I  float  from  sphere 
to  sphere  in  some  lost  caste  of  spirit-life?  Or  should 
I  return  to  earth,  and,  conscious  of  the  past,  repeat 
my  dreadful  career,  age  after  age,  over  and  over  again, 
horrors  multiplied  by  horrors! 

The  day  darkened  as  I  sat  and  thought,  but  it  was 
nothing  to  the  profound  darkness  that  settled  on  my 
soul.  My  head  sank  into  my  chest;  my  shoulders 
drooped.  I  seemed  to  cringe  into  myself,  as  if  the 
very  props  of  life  had  been  withdrawn  from  within  me. 
Night  came,  but,  with  its  stars,  it  was  as  daybreak 
to  the  moonless  and  starless  night  that  reigned  within 
me.  Never  before  had  I  realized  the  glory  of  mytv/iite 
life.  Never  before  had  I  understood  what  "  honor, 
love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends,"  meant.  Never 
before  had  I  comprehended  the  dreadful  burden  of  dis 
qualification  and  disability  borne  by  the  colored  peo 
ple  of  America. 

With  one  fell  blow  everything  had  been  shattered 
but  my  intellect.  The  man  who  is  suddenly  deprived 
of  sight  knows  that  all  things  are  as  they  have  been, 
though  he  can  see  them  not;  but  he  can  grope  around 
him  and  find  the  outstretched  hands  of  love  and  pity. 
But  I  was  like  one  who  still  retains  sight,  but  knows 
that  the  light  has  gone  out  of  the  universe  forever, 
even  to  the  farthest  reaches  of  the  remotest  stars.  For 
me  there  were  no  loving  hearts  and  hands.  Those  I 


164  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

worshiped  fled  from  me,  as  if  I  bore  about  me  the 
contagion  of  the  pest-house.  My  soul  might  be  as 
beautiful  as  the  night  "  clad  in  the  glory  of  a  thousand 
stars,"  but  there  was  no  heart  in  all  this  world  that 
could  pierce  the  thick  iron  armor  of  race-prejudice  to 
hold  loving  communion  with  my  spirit. 

I  was  utterly  alone!  A  lost  soul  in  the  universe! 
True,  I  might  descend  the  slimy  steps  of  destiny  and 
merge  myself  in  the  despised  caste,  and  be  lost  forever 
beneath  the  contempt  of  my  race.  There  my  animal- 
like  cravings  for  companionship  might  be  satisfied;  and 
I  might  make  new  ties  and  perpetuate  my  loathly  feat 
ures.  I  might  become  one  of  the  pariahs, — one  of  the 
outlaws, — and  share  with  the  poor  wretches  their  ab 
ject  miseries.  But  that  doom  was,  to  one  of  my  train 
ing,  worse  than  death  and  the  grave.  For  in  death 
all  are  equal;  and  the  grave  turns  us  at  last  into  flowers, 
— bright  flowers, — things  of  beauty,  that  fill  the  air 
with  perfume.  In  the  dust  of  the  grave  there  are  no 
stirrings  of  ambition;  no  unsatisfied  longings;  no  jeal 
ousies;  no  pride;  no  wounded  sensibilities;  no  great 
passionate  bursts  of  hearts  that  are  trampled  under 
the  feet  of  men;  nothing  but  peace  and  sleep.  Ay, 
profound  and  dreamless  sleep  —  sleep  that  takes  no 
note  of  night  or  day,  or  time  or  season;  of  the  wind's 
scream  or  the  song-bird's  melody;  of  the  growing 
grass  or  the  falling  leaves;  of  sunshine  or  rain;  — 
sleep  that  merges  the  individual  into  the  universal  na 
ture,  as  a  drop  of  water  is  lost  in  the  interminable 
ocean.  And  if  from  this  dissolving  clod  the  extricated 
spirit  is  carried  by  the  great  Purpose  into  other  realms 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


of  being,  will  not  God  be  there  too  ?  Will  not  that  re 
gion  be  part  of  God's  world,  wherever  it  may  be  ?  Can 
not  the  soul  trust  itself  with  safety  to  Him  who  made 
it?  Will  the  Creator,  Saturn-like,  devour  his  children? 
It  cannot  be. 

And  why  should  I  live  to  be  the  butt  and  scorn  and 
foot-ball  of  fate  ?  Why  should  I  believe  that  that 
which  I  have  seen  was,  in  truth,  the  Man  of  Nazareth  ? 
What  hold  have  we  upon  the  veracity  of  a  spirit-world 
of  whose  conditions  and  limitations  we  know  nothing? 
Why  may  not  that  have  been  an  infinite  devil  that  I 

met,  for  — 

"  The  devil  hath  power 
To  assume  a  pleasing  shape. " 

Who  can  talk  through  the  veil  that  hangs  around  the 
visible  world,  and  have  any  assurance  that  the  voices 
which  come  back  to  him  are  of  angels  or  demons  ? 
And  if  some  arch-fiend,  making  mankind  his  sport  and 
jest  (and  we  have  many  facts  wich  lead  to  the  possibility 
of  that  conclusion),  has  picked  me  up,  out  of  my  serene 
happiness,  loving  and  beloved,  at  the  very  acme  of 
human  fortune,  and  dropped  me  into  this  dark,  loath 
some  and  unscalable  well,  what  assurance  have  I  that 
he  does  not  sit  upon  the  curb-stone  to  grin  down  upon 
me  forever  ?  Is  he  not  chuckling  over  his  work,  even 
here  and  now  ?  Is  he  not  holding  his  sides  as  he  con 
templates  my  unutterable  miseries? 

Why  should  I  not  die  ?  Has  life  any  hold  upon  me  ? 
Without  love  there  is  no  life  —  but  the  mere  hanging- 
together  of  physical  shreds  of  being.  And  that  fair 
creature,  whose  gentle  nature  and  noble  soul  pervade 


1 66  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

me  like  a  new  existence,  she  is  gone  from  me  forever! 
Never,  at  the  farthest  reach  of  my  imagination,  can  I 
hope  for  anything  from  her  but  her  pity.  Shall  I  live 
to  see  her  wedded  to  another  ?  Shall  I  live  to  see  her 
beloved  features  reappearing,  like  light  through  a  vase, 
in  the  pledges  of  another  man's  honorable  love  ?  Shall 
I  follow  her,  groaning,  like  a  lost  soul  cast  out  of  Para 
dise —  a  black,  bitter  shadow,  trailing  behind  her 
happiness  and  glory  ? 

Why  should  I  live?  God,  it  is  true,  has  implanted 
in  us  all  an  instinct  of  self-preservation,  so  that  in  the 
most  loathful  conditions  we  cling  to  existence.  But 
could  the  universal  plan  have  contemplated  such  a  state 
of  abasement  as  that  into  which  I  had  fallen?  When  I 
leave  these  walls  what  manner  of  world  do  I  enter? 
A  world  where  contempt  encompasses  me.  A  world 
without  opportunity.  A  world  without  hope,  A  world 
without  joy.  I  cannot  move  my  eyes  but  I  behold 
something  to  remind  me  of  my  misfortunes.  The  evil 
reputation  of  the  man  whose  carcass  I  drag  around  with 
me  I  might  overcome  in  time,  by  an  honest  life;  but 
what  honesty,  what  well-doing,  what  intelligence  can 
surmount  the  dreadful  prejudices  which  accompany  my 
complexion? 

And  I  cried  out  aloud: 

"  Oh,  my  white  brethren!  Little  do  you  appreciate 
what  a  glory  it  is  to  belong  to  the  dominant  caste; 
what  a  hell  it  is  to  fall  into  the  subject  caste!  Little 
do  you  appreciate  your  race-advantages,  to  be  '  the 
beauty  of  the  world,  the  paragon  of  animals,'  the  per- 
fectjorj  of  your  species,  Little  do  you  think  what  a 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


167 


boundless  debt  of  gratitude  you  owe  to  the  good  God,  for 
his  mercies,  to  be  expressed  in  boundless  tenderness 
and  generosity  to  your  unfortunate  brethren." 
And  I  felt  like  Lear: 

"  Oh,  I  have  ta'en 

Too  little  care  of  this.     Take  physic,  pomp, 
Expose  thyself  to  feel  what  wretches  feel, 
That  thou  mayst  shake  the  superflux  to  them, 
And  show  the  heavens  more  just." 

Why  should  I  live  ?  Would  it  not  be  better  to  end 
it  all  in  death  ?  Thus  would  I  escape  the  grasp  of  that 
spiritual  power,  whatever  it  might  be,  which  had  placed 
this  horrible  doom  upon  me.  Yes,  I  would  sjiake 
myself  clear  of  this  loathsome  carcass.  There  was  one 
gate  of  escape  yet  open  —  death.  And  so  my  soul 
would  be  liberated  from  the  accidents  of  time. 

But  how  ? 

I  searched  my  pockets  for  a  knife,  for  anything  with 
which  I  might  inflict  a  wound,  and  drain  Sam  John- 
sing's  blood  out  of  his  wretched  body.  But,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  coins,  there  was  nothing  in  my 
pockets. 

Could  I  hang  myself  ?  Yes.  I  might  tear  up  the 
vermin-infested  bed-clothes,  twist  them  into  a  rope, 
and  tie  it  to  the  cross-bars  of  the  window.  But  there 
was  no  chair  or  stool  that  I  could  stand  upon  and  kick 
away  and  leave  myself  suspended. 

Fate  !  Fate  !  Am  I  denied  even  the  poor  privilege 
of  death  ? 

No;  there  is  one  resource  left!  I  had  heard  of  men 
killing  themselves,  by  butting  out  their  brains  against  a 


I  68  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

wall.  It  is  hard  to  keep  a  man  within  the  boundaries 
of  life  if  he  is  determined  to  escape  beyond  them.  I 
would  open  the  gate  of  death  in  that  way. 

I  selected  a  spot  where  I  could  have  the  longest  run. 
I  stooped  my  head  for  the  start.  I  shuddered.  My 
life  within  me  revolted  against  hurting  itself.  Existence 
pleaded  for  continuance.  But  then  I  caught  a  glimpse 
of  my  great,  black  hands,  and  the  horrors  of  my  con 
dition  came  back  upon  me  in  an  avalanche  of  woe,  and 
I  sprang  forward  like  a  race-horse  that  has  been  struck 
a  keen  blow.  I  remember  nothing  more. 


It  was  morning.  My  first  consciousness  was  a  slant 
glory  of  light  on  the  cell  wall  facing  me;  the  next  was 
a  great  racking  pain  in  my  head  and  the  back  of  my 
neck.  Where  was  I?  It  took  me  some  time  to  recall  it 
all.  The  jailer  stood  beside  me.  I  tried  to  move.  I 
was  very  stiff.  Then  I  observed' that  my  feet  were  tied 
together. 

"  See  here,  you  darned  fool,"  said  the  man  roughly, 
"  what  did  you  mean  trying  to  butt  your  brains  out  ?" 

I  looked  at  him  intently. 

"  I  want  to  die,"  I  said. 

"  That's  a  mighty  queer  thing,"  he  said.  "  I  never 
knew  a  nigger  before  that  wanted  to  kill  hisself.  If 
your  skull  hadn't  been  an  inch  thick  you  would  have 
smashed  it.  I  heard  the  noise  out  in  the  hall.  It 
sounded  like  a  gun.  No  egg-shell  about  that  conk  of 
yours,  Sam.  I  thought  you  were  gone  up  sure,  when 
I  came  in  and  found  you  layin'  there,  bleedin'  like  a 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  169 

stuck  pig.     You  mustn't  try  no  sich  foolishness  ag'in. 
What  do  you  want  to  die  for?" 

"  I  am  the  most  wretched  creature  alive  in  this  world 
to-day,"  I  replied. 

The  man  looked  at  me  with  astonishment. 

"  See  here,  Sam,"  he  said,  "  what's  come  over  you? 
You  don't  act  like  yourself  and  you  don't  talk  like  your 
self.  You  used  to  sing  and  dance  juba  when  you  were 
here  before,  instead  of  ramrnin'  your  head  agin  a  stone 
wall.  What's  the  matter  with  you?" 

"  It  would  be  useless,"  I  said,  "  to  talk  to  you.  You 
would  not  believe  me,  and  you  could  not  understand 
me.  But  can  you  not  see  that  my  conversation  is  ut 
terly  unlike  anything  Sam  Johnsing  was  ever  capable 
of?  To  all  appearances  I  am  Sam  Johnsing.  And 
yet  I  am  not  Sam  Johnsing,  but  Doctor  Anthony 
Huguet.  And  neither  you  nor  any  one  else  —  except 
two  persons  —  will  believe  it.  Here  is  some  money. 
Take  it  all,  and  go  out  and  buy  me  ten  grains  of  mor 
phine." 

The  jailer  started  back. 

"  Why,"  said  he,  "  you  are  a  darned  fool.  Do  you 
want  to  kill  yourself?  Sit  up  and  eat  your  breakfast." 

"  No,  no,"  I  replied;  "  place  it  on  the  floor.  I  can 
not  eat  it  now." 

The  jailer  withdrew  with  an  utterly  puzzled  expres 
sion  on  his  countenance.  Surely  something  was  the 
matter  with  Sam  Johnsing,  when  he  wouldn't  eat! 
He  confided  his  bewilderment  to  his  wife  and  his 
assistant;  but  they  could  make  nothing  of  it. 

For  hours  I  lay  there  thinking,     My  last  hope  was. 


I  70  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

gone.  I  could  not  even  die!  The  big  tears  ran  down 
my  face,  mingling  with  the  dry  cakes  of  blood  and  soft 
ening  them.  And  then  I  cried  out  aloud: 

"  Oh,   my  God!    Have  mercy  on  me.      Christ  Jesus, 
have  mercy  on  me!" 

And   on   the   moment  it  seemed  to  me  that  a  voice 
spoke  somewhere  within  my  mind,  and  said: 

"  Shame  on  you  !  A  scholar  and  philosopher  !  To 
be  so  cast  down  by  the  accidents  of  fortune.  Is  there 
nothing  to  work  for  in  all  this  great  round  world  but 
your  own  miserable  self?  Think  of  the  millions  who, 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  are  enfolded  in  the  hor 
rors  of  injustice  and  oppression  from  which  you  would 
escape  by  death.  Coward — thrice  coward  !  When  God 
is  trying  to  lift  up  the  world,  wouldst  thou  fly  from  the 
responsibilities  of  existence  into  the  dust  of  nothing 
ness  ?  Up!  —  up  !  Rouse  thyself,  and  do  thy  duty! 
Make  thy  cause  the  cause  of  the  afflicted.  Live  to 
preach  courage  to  one  race  and  charity  to  another. 
Live  to  extend  the  hand  of  pity  to  the  downtrodden 
and  the  hopeless.  Live  to  rebuke  the  indifference  of 
the  prosperous  and  the  cruelty  of  the  heartless.  Live 
to  exemplify  the  spirit  of  Christ  on  earth  — that  spirit 
which  walks  abroad  among  men,  linking  the  hands  of 
enemies  together  as  brethren,  and  lifting  up  their  faces 
in  joy  and  gratitude  to  Heaven." 

And  there  was  a  great  silence  in  my  soul  after  these 
words  were  spoken.  And  I  marveled,  and  I  said  to 
myself: 

"  What  is  the  mind  of  man?  Who  is  it  that  thinks 
because  he  intends  to  think?  Who  is  it  can  anticipate 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


171 


his  own  thoughts?  Where  do  they  come  from? 
Where  did  this  voice  come  from?  The  mind  is  like  a 
great,  shoreless  pool,  and  thoughts  arise  to  its  surface 
as  mermaids  project  their  shining  shoulders  above  the 
silent  sea.  But  from  what  unsoundable  depths  do 
they  arise?  How  far  down,  toward  the  central  ever 
lasting  purposes,  do  those  waters  reach?  Do  they  not 
rest  upon  the  Will  of  the  universe?  And  are  not  these 
apparently  self-acting  intellects  of  ours  part  of  the 
great  automatic  mechanism  we  call  Nature?  Is  there 
not  a  rhythm  in  the  music  of  the  spheres?  Are  not 
all  things  weighed,  measured  and  counted?  Can  there 
be  an  accident  in  a  world  that  is  full  of  God?  And 
if  this  be  so,  are  not  my  sufferings  foredoomed  and 
necessary?  Are  they  not  part  of  the  universal  scheme? 
And,  if  this  be  so,  are  not  my  very  miseries  Heaven- 
inflicted  dignities?" 

I  had  violated  my  conscience.  Yes,  that  alone  was 
divine.  Flesh  is  matter — stuff.  Life  is  but  a  cleavage 
from  the  all-pervading  life.  But  the  sense  of  truth  and 
right  in  the  individual  is  part  of  the  Godhead.  He 
who  deceives  or  misleads  it,  in  himself  or  others,  trifles 
with  and  insults  God.  He  commits  the  highest  sacri 
lege.  He  befouls  the  innermost  altar  of  the  tabernacle. 
He  turns  the  Creator  out  of  His  dwelling-place. 

With  these  thoughts  I  was  greatly  cheered.  My 
punishment  was  just.  Then  I  might  atone  for  my 
wrong-doing  !  There  was  still  work  for  me  to  do  in 
the  world.  My  inmost  monitor  had  spoken,  even  as 
the  damou  spoke  to  Socrates. 

I  called  the  jailer.      I  told  him  to  take  the  bandages 


172 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


from  my  limbs.  I  assured  him  that  I  would  not  again 
attempt  suicide.  I  asked  for  water  and  washed  myself. 
I  ate  my  breakfast. 

I  would  patiently  wait  until  the  end  of  my  imprison 
ment  and  then  go  out  into  the  world  and  do  my  duty. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

MY   FAITHFUL    FRIEND. 

"  Soft !  who  comes  here  ? 
A  friend  of  Antony's." 

— Julius  C&sar,  Hi.  i. 

EARLY  next  day  Ben  came  to  see  me.  He  had 
just  heard  of  my  imprisonment.  He  brought  me 
money,  clean  clothes,  and  breakfast  from  a  neighbor 
ing  restaurant.  I  was  deeply  moved  and  gratified. 
The  poor  fellow  was  all  kindness  and  attention,  respect 
and  pity.  I  sent  him  out  to  buy  me  a  new  bedstead 
and  bedding,  all  fresh  and  clean,  and  a  table  to  write 
upon,  with  pen,  ink  and  stationery,  and  a  comfortable 
chair  or  two.  Ben  carried  the  filthy  thing  I  had  been 
sleeping  on  out  into  the  prison  yard,  and  then  pro 
ceeded  to  scrub  and  whitewash  the  cell.  The  jailer, 
his  wife  and  assistants  looked  on  with  unbounded 
astonishment.  In  answer  to  their  questions,  Ben  told 
them  that  I  was  really  Doctor  Huguet,  and  that  I  had 
been  hoodooed  and  bewitched,  and  turned  into  Sam 
Johnsing.  These  poor  whites  are  many  of  them  almost 
as  superstitious  as  the  negroes,  and  they  listened  to 
Ben's  statements  with  open-eyed  wonder  and  more 
than  half  credence.  Their  treatment  of  me  became 
much  more  kind  and  respectful. 

Ben  made  arrangements  that  my  meals  were  to  be 


'74 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


served  to  me  from  the  neighboring  restaurant.  T  re 
quested  him  to  bring  me,  the  next  day,  a  number  of 
books,  of  which  I  furnished  him  a  list. 

Ben  gave  me  some  interesting  news  about  the  real 
Sam  Johnsing.  He  had  been  spending  most  of  his 
time  at  "  Mother  Bindell's,"  a  notorious  place,  where 
all  the  depraved  white  men  and  dissolute  colored 
women  of  the  neighborhood  congregated;  and  there  he 
had  been  disbursing  his  (my)  money  lavishly,  in  a  con 
tinued  royal  state  of  drunkenness  and  uproar,  and  was 
winning  golden  opinions  from  all  the  ruffianry  of  the 
neighborhood.  The  malignant  hatred  he  manifested 
toward  all  negro  men  (not  women)  endeared  him  to 
the  hearts  of  the  youthful  Caucasian  chivalry;  and 
they  had  taken  up  the  movement  which  Colonel  Rud- 
diman  had  inaugurated  in  my  behalf,  and  it  was  very 
probable  that  he  would  be  elected  to  Congress!  What 
a  mockery  of  fate  was  this  ! 

There  was,  however,  one  dark  cloud  upon  the  horizon 
of  Sam's  delightful  existence.  Colonel  Ruddiman  and 
his  gallant  sons  had  heard,  with  astonishment  and  rage, 
of  the  conduct  of  Miss  Mary's  affianced  lover,  and  they 
swore  vengeance  upon  him.  He  was  disgracing  her 
and  them,  they  said,  as  well  as  himself,  by  his  foul, 
vile  life  and  his  degrading  associations,  and  they  pro 
posed  to  call  him  to  account.  In  fact,  Colonel  Ruddiman 
had  already  visited  my  house  to  interview  him,  but  had 
not  found  him.  Miss  Mary  had  heard  nothing  of  all 
these  reports;  they  had,  indeed,  been  carefully  kept  from 
her;  but  she  was  surprised  that  her  lover  had  not  writ 
ten  to  her  or  called  upon  her,  for  it  had  been  my  habit 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


175 


to  write  to  her  at  least  once  a  day,  when  we  were 
separated  from  each  other. 

I  penned  a  note  to  Abigail,  telling  her  of  my  mis 
fortunes,  of  my  conviction  for  stealing  my  own  hat,  and 
of  my  present  habitation,  and  gave  it  to  Ben  to  forward 
to  her,  for  I  desired  to  learn  in  this  way  all  I  could 
about  Mary. 

With  my  clean,  comfortable  cell,  my  books  and  news 
papers,  and  my  easy-chair,  I  began  to  forget,  for  a  time, 
many  of  my  sorrows.  The  conviction  grew  upon  me, 
also,  that  the  spell  under  which  I  suffered  would  pass 
away  and  that  in  the  meantime  I  must  bear  with  stoicism 
and  philosophy  the  extremest  blows  of  fortune. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

A  VISIT. 

"  How  now!     What  news?" 

— Merchant  of  Venice,  i.  2. 

THE  third  day  of  my  imprisonment  Abigail  came. 
She  had  received  my  letter. 

She  looked  at  me  most  pitifully  as  she  took  my  hand. 

I  had  many  questions  to  ask  her. 

She  had  had,  she  said,  numerous  discussions  with  Mary 
about  myself;  but  that  strong-minded  young  la*Jy  ut 
terly  refused  to  believe  in  the  possibility  of  the  great 
transformation  which  had  overtaken  me.  She  loved 
me  profoundly,  but  she  had  little  belief  in  the  super 
natural;  and,  so  long  as  she  had  not  beheld  any  change 
in  Doctor  Huguet  himself,  it  was  impossible  to  con 
vince  her  that  her  lover  was  not  still  himself.  Like 
most  persons  of  strong  and  resolute  mind,  she  abided 
much  by  precedent,  and  in  all  her  reading  she  could 
remember  nothing  like  the  calamity  which  Abigail  in 
sisted  had  befallen  me.  She  was  annoyed  that  she  had 
not  received  a  visit  or  letter  from  her  affianced  lover 
for  several  days.  She  fell  back,  however,  upon  her 
usual  resource,  reading,  and  buried  herself  in  the 
library. 

Abigail  had  noticed  also  a  change  in  the  manner  of 
Colonel  Ruddiman  and  his  sons.  They  appeared  un- 


DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 


177 


easy  and  irritated,  and  had  little  to  say.  Indeed,  she 
had  one  day  entered  the  Colonel's  bed-room,  unexpect 
edly,  and  found  him  cleaning  his  dueling-pistols.  The 
neighbors  no  longer  called,  and  the  house  was  gloomy 
and  silent. 

Abigail  offered  me  some  money  out  of  her  little 
hoard;  but  I  declined  it,  thanking  her,  and  assuring 
her  that  I  was  abundantly  supplied  by  Ben. 

As  she  was  leaving  she  told  me  that  Buryhill  had 
paid  two  visits  to  the  house,  and  had  been  closeted 
with  the  Colonel  for  an  hour  or  more  each  time.  After 
these  visits  the  Colonel's  gloom  seemed  to  increase, 
and  she  fancied  he  looked  very  dejected. 

I  could  not  penetrate  to  the  central  meaning  of  all 
these  conflicting  details,  but  I  fancied  the  clouds  were 
gathering  thickly  around  those  I  loved;  and  I  cursed 
the  hard  fate  which  had  shut  me  up  in  prison  at  such  a 
time.  And  yet,  shut  up  as  I  was  in  the  dark  cell  of  my 
loathsome  body,  I  doubted  if  I  could  be  of  much  use  to 
them  if  I  had  been  free. 

And  so  the  days  sped.  Ben  called  often,  and  Abi 
gail  at  least  once  a  week. 

The  news  began  to  thicken. 

Ben  told  me  that  the  Colonel  had  been  at  my  house 
twice  to  see  Doctor  Huguet,  but  the  wretch  who  bore 
that  name  was  seldom  at  home,  except  when  he  was 
brought  there  in  a  state  of  helpless  intoxication,  accom 
panied  by  pale,  haggard,  prematurely-aged  young  men 
—  armed  roysterers,  in  top-boots,  with  riding-whips  and 
spurs;  noisy,  insolent,  ignorant,  arrogant  creatures  — 
who  took  possession  of  the  house  and  defaced  it  with 


I  78  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

tobacco-spit,  empty  bottles  and  broken  furniture. 
Ben  was  powerless,  for  these  creatures  were  his  mas 
ter's  friends;  and  if  he  had  attempted  to  stop  them 
they  would  have  proved  their  white  manhood  by 
shooting  him  down,  with  as  little  compunction  as  they 
would  a  dog.  He  did  the  best  he  could  :  he  secreted 
all  the  portable  valuables,  such  as  the  plate,  jewelry, 
etc.;  locked  up  the  book-cases  and  all  my  private 
papers,  and  closed  half  the  rooms  in  the  house  against 
them.  Fortunately,  they  did  not  stay  long  at  any 
time.  There  were  other  places  more  attractive  to 
them. 

There  is  a  sort  of  freemasonry  among  the  negroes, 
xvhereby  the  servants  of  one  house  communicate  the 
occurrences  which  happen  in  it  to  the  servants  of  all 
the  other  houses;  and  thus  the  news  will  spread,  with 
almost  telegraphic  rapidity,  throughout  a  whole  neigh 
borhood.  It  is  said  that  the  Indians  have  the  same 
system.  We  are  told,  for  instance,  that  the  massacre 
of  General  Custer  and  his  troops  was  known  to  the  red 
men,  five  hundred  miles  from  the  scene  of  the  disaster, 
long  before  the  whites  had  heard  of  it  by  the  electric 
wires.  I  suppose  that  our  own  race,  before  the  days 
of  newspapers,  used  the  same  means  of  disseminating 
information,  and  any  startling  news  passed  from  mouth 
to  mouth  with  wonderful  rapidity. 

And  so  the  facts  which  I  am  about  to  relate  reached 
Ben  and  were  by  him  communicated  to  me. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
"MOTHER  BINDELL'S." 

"  There's  no  more  faith  in  thee  than  in  a  stewed  prune ;  nor  no  more 
truth  in  thee  than  in  a  drawn  fox;  and  for  womanhood,  Maid  Marian  may 
be  the  deputy's  wife  of  the  ward  to  thee." 

—  i  Henry  IV.,  Hi.  j. 


A 


T  a  cross-road,  on    the  highway  between  C- 


and  Colonel  Ruddiman's  residence,  stood,  until 
recently,  a  dilapidated  frame  house.  It  had  once  been 
a  prosperous  wayside  inn,  but  its  glory  had  long  since 
departed.  Everything  about  it  indicated  decay  and 
neglect.  The  rain  and  sun  had  long  since  removed, 
except  in  a  few  sheltered  places,  the  paint  which  had 
formerly  adorned  its  clap-boards;  the  shingles  were 
mossy  and  rotten  with  age,  and  lacking  in  places;  the 
shutters  —  what  was  left  of  them  —  hung  loose,  often 
depending  from  a  single  hinge  ;  many  of  the  sashes 
were  innocent  of  glass.  The  dilapidated  fence  inclosed 
a  broken-down  barn,  and  an  inclosure  over  which  tin 
cans,  beef-bones  and  fragments  of  skirt-hoops,  with 
other  rubbish,  were  scattered. 

The  doors  were  black  with  handling,  and  here  and 
there  a  panel  was  cracked  or  altogether  missing.  Filth, 
nastiness,  demoralization  were  everywhere. 

In  day-time  the  place  seemed  desolate  and  deserted, 
but  toward  evening  signs  of  life  began  to  manifest 


179 


T  8O  DOCTOR  HUG UE T. 

themselves.  Smoke  ascended  from  the  kitchen  chim 
ney,  and  a  gray-haired,  haggard,  suspicious-looking, 
evil-featured  old  white  woman  went  in  and  out  —  the 
proprietress  of  the  mansion.  Mother  Bindell  had  a 
dreadful  history.  Her  husband  had  been  hanged  for  a 
murder  which  it  was  shrewdly  suspected  she  had  her 
self  perpetrated  ;  two  of  her  sons  were  in  prison  for 
burglary,  and  her  three  daughters  flaunted  their  shame 
in  distant  cities.  Her  house  was  a  haunt  for  criminals, 
black  and  white.  The  neighbors  had  often  threatened 
to  have  it  suppressed  by  law  or  force,  but  the  influence 
of  a  certain  class  of  degraded  young  white  men  had  so 
far  shielded  her  from  justice. 

As  the  shades  of  twilight  gathered,  the  other  inhabit 
ants  of  the  house,  who  had  slept  throughout  the  day, 
began  to  show  themselves  at  doors  and  windows. 
They  were  all  mulattoes,  of  varying  shades  of  dark 
ness,  from  the  pale  octoroon  to  the  coffee-colored  half- 
blood  ;  —  slatternly,  sluttish,  full-breasted  wenches, 
with  all  the  marks  of  dissipation,  licentiousness,  and 
even  disease,  upon  their  persons  —  lazy,  sensual,  brutal, 
ignorant,  high-voiced,  profane  creatures;  bare-footed, 
bare-legged,  or  slip-shod;  their  gaily-colored,  cheap 
dresses  little  more  than  covering  their  bodies.  They 
were  ready  for  another  night  of  drunken  revel  and 
debauchery  with  the  young  white  men  who  frequented 
the  place,  chief  among  whom  was  now  Doctor  Anthony 
Huguet  —  the  scholar  and  gentleman,  and  prospective 
Congressman  ! 

It  was  nine  o'clock  at  night.    The  uproar  was  great.  A 


DOCTOR  HUG UE 7\  j  g  j 

crowd  of  men  and  women,  black  and  white,  were  drink 
ing  or  looking  on,  while  four  young  white  men,  their 
faces  inflamed  with  liquor  and  their  eyes  wild  with  the 
excitement  of  the  game,  were  playing  cards,  when, 
above  all  the  tumult  of  rattling  glasses,  talk,  oaths  and 
laughter,  a  tremendous  pounding  was  heard  at  the  door. 
Mother  Bindell  —  considerably  alarmed,  for  her  regular 
customers  did  not  make  their  presence  known  in  that 
way — with  her  red  weazel-eyes  winking  with  appre 
hension,  and  her  gnarled,  withered  old  hands,  which 
had  never  done  a  good  deed  since  they  were  made, 
trembling  with  nervousness  —  pushed  her  way  through 
the  now  silent  crowd  to  the  front  door  and  opened  it. 
A  strong,  manly  voice  was  heard  to  ask,  out  of  the 
darkness  : 

"  Is  Doctor  Huguet  here  ?  " 

The  old  woman,  true  to  her  instincts,  began  to  pre 
varicate  : 

"  I  do  not  know  —  he" 

But  the  visitors  pushed  past  her,  and  Colonel  Ruddi- 
man  and  two  of  his  sons  entered  the  room,  and  looked, 
with  scowls  on  their  faces,  at  the  shameful  scene. 

In  a  corner,  maudlin-drunk,  sat  the  man  who  bore 
the  name  of  Doctor  Huguet,  with  a  mulatto  girl  on 
each  knee,  their  arms  twined  around  his  neck,  while 
he  alternately  bestowed  upon  them  slobbering  kisses. 
They  were  all  so  much  under  the  influence  of  liquor 
that  they  were  unconscious  of  the  silence  that  had 
fallen  upon  the  revelers,  or  of  the  large  man  who  stood 
before  them,  with  his  face  crimson  with  rage. 

It    was    but  for    a  moment.     Seizing  each  of  the 


I  8  2  DOCTOR  HUG UE  T. 

women,  the  Colonel  flung  them  right  and  left,  and  they 
fell  in  helpless  heaps  of  relaxed  flesh  and  calico  upon 
the  floor.  Then  he  cried  out,  in  a  voice  of  thunder, 
which  penetrated  even  to  the  dim  consciousness  of 
Sam  Johnsing: 

"  Oh,  you  infernal  scoundrel  !  Is  this  the  way  you 
prepare  yourself  to  enter  a  respectable  and  honorable 
family?  Is  this  the  way  you  keep  faith  with  the  noblest 
woman  in  the  world  ?  " 

Sam  looked  up  at  him  in  stupid  confusion,  winking 
his  bleared  eyes,  as  he  tried  to  collect  his  scattered 
senses. 

"  Get  up!"  cried  the  Colonel,  clutching  the  small 
figure  by  the  throat,  and  lifting  him  to  his  feet.  "  Get 
up!  You  have  insulted  me  and  my  family,  and  I  de 
mand  satisfaction.  Nothing  but  your  life-blood  can 
wipe  out  the  stain  you  have  put  upon  me.  You  have 
made  my  dearest  child  an  object  of  pity  and  sympathy 
for  a  whole  county.  While  she  believes  in  you  and 
waits  your  coming,  you  are  here  reveling  in  the  arms 
of  these  beasts!  Select  among  your  friends  here  some 
one  to  act  as  your  second.  I  have  brought  my  pistols 
with  me.  As  a  man  of  honor  you  will  be  glad  of  this 
opportunity  to  expiate  your  conduct." 

He  released  his  hold  of  Sam  to  take  from  one  of  his 
sons  the  mahogany  box  which  contained  the  dueling- 
pistols,  when  the  wretched  creature  collapsed  in  aheap 
on  the  floor,  half-seated,  half-kneeling,  with  uplifted 
hands,  while  he  commenced  to  weep,  and  cried  out,  in 
a  trembling  voice: 

"  Foah   God,  massa!   I  haint  done  nothin'.      I  don't 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  183 

want  to  fight  no  dooel.      I  never  tetched  your  chile  — 
don't  know  her,  s'help  me  God!" 

The  Colonel  looked  at  him  with  unbounded  astonish 
ment.  While  he  knew  that  Doctor  Huguet  had  fallen 
suddenly  into  profligate  habits,  yet  such  lapses  from 
virtue  were  not  unusual  among  men;  but  that  a  South 
ern  gentleman  would  refuse  to  fight  the  man  he  had 
wronged,  and  would  fall  on  his  knees  and  weep,  actually 
blubber,  as  the  wretch  was  now  blubbering,  was  some 
thing  so  far  beyond  the  Colonel's  experience  of  Southern 
mankind  that  he  stood  paralyzed,  speechless,  looking 
down  at  the  abject  creature  groveling  at  his  feet. 

Here  one  of  the  young  men  —  Harry  Sanders,  a  tall, 
handsome  fellow  (if  a  face  can  be  called  handsome  in 
which  there  is  nothing  of  goodness),  who  possessed  the 
manners  of  a  gentleman,  without  the  finer  instincts  and 
characteristics  which  really  constitute  one  —  staggered 
forward. 

You  see,  Colonel,"  he  said,  with  a  lurch  and  a 
hiccough,  "  the  Doctor  isn't  in  a  condition  to  fight  to 
night;  he  couldn't  hold  a  pistol,  but  he  is  my  friend, 
yes,  sah,  my  friend,  and  a  fine,  gallant  —  hie  —  fellow  he 
is,  and  I  will  promise  you,  Colonel,  on  the  honah  of  a 
gentleman,  sah,  that  as  soon  as  I  can  get  him  sober 
enough  he  shall  call  at  your  house,  sah,  and  either 
make  such  apologies  as  will  satisfy  you,  or  give  you  the 
satisfaction — hie  —  of  a  gentleman — satisfaction  —  a 
gentleman,  sah  —  by  God,  sah." 

And  he  thrust  his  hand  out  to  the  Colonel. 

"  See   that  he   does,"  said  the  Colonel,  refusing  the 


184  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

outstretched  member,  "  or  I  shall  hunt  him  up,  and 
shoot  him  like  a  dog. 

"  And  you,  sir,"  he  continued,  to  young  Sanders, 
"  I  am  ashamed  to  see  you  here.  Your  father  was  a 
gallant  gentleman,  and  my  friend,  and  he  died  in  de 
fense  of  his  country.  What  would  he  say  if  he  could 
look  upon  you  here,  in  this  shameful  company?  If  he 
knew  your  mode  of  life,  he  would  rest  uneasy  in  his 
bloody  grave  at  Gettysburg,  And  you,  young  men 
—  most  of  you  I  know  —  you  are  all  of  you  of  good 
families.  What  will  become  of  our  unhappy  country 
when  you  assume  the  reins  of  government?  Our  noble 
heroes  have  died  in  vain  if  the  New  South  is  to  be 
ruled  by  such  as  you.  Instead  of  improving  your 
minds  by  studying  the  careers  of  the  great  men  of  our 
country,  you  spend  your  nights  in  this  villainous 
brothel,  in  the  embrace  of  negroes.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  decent  black  men,  knowing  all  this,  look  down 
upon  you  with  unbounded  contempt,  and  aspire  to 
sway  the  politics  of  the  land?  Are  they  not  better 
fitted,  by  lives  of  virtue  and  industry,  for  self-govern 
ment,  than  you  are?  Shame  on  you!  You  are  the 
disgrace  of  a  noble  race!  You,  indeed,  the  representa 
tives  of  white  chivalry!  You  cannot  endure  that  a  black 
man  should  come  within  a  hundred  feet  of  you  at  the 
ballot-box;  but  you  cannot  get  close  enough  to  a  beastly, 
diseased  black  woman  !  Shame  on  you.  Pah  !  The 
very  air  of  this  den  chokes  me.  I  will  see  that  the 
next  grand  jury  of  the  county  finds  an  indictment 
against  this  wretched  hovel." 

As  the  Colonel  proceeded,  the  young  men,  scowling 


DOCTOR  HUG  UET.  185 

but  frightened,  had  retreated  through  the  open  doors, 
or  leaped  through  the  windows,  and  the  negroes  had 
hurried  up-stairs  to  hide  themselves,  like  bats  from  a 
light. 

"  And  you,"  said  the  Colonel  to  Mother  Bindell, 
who  was  about  to  slip  into  the  cellar,  "  you  !  you 
miserable  old  haridan!  The  neighbors  ought  to  turn 
out  and  hang  you!  If  they  had  done  so  fifty  years 
ago  the  world  would  be  better  off  to-day  by  many 
thousands  of  dollars  and  many  valuable  lives.  Scuttle 
away  into  the  cellar,  like  a  gray  old  rat,  you  old  soul- 
destroyer!  You  ought  to  be  burned  alive  in  your 
filthy  habitation." 

With  a  parting  scowl  at  Doctor  Huguet,  who  was 
still  on  his  knees,  crying,  the  Colonel  and  his  sons 
marched  out. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

SHE   SEES   HIM. 

"  In  thy  own  chair  —  thine  own  place  at  the  banquet  — 
I  sought  thy  sweet  face  in  the  circle;  — but, 
Instead,  a  gray-haired,  withered,  bloody-eyed 
And  bloody-handed,  ghastly,  ghostly  thing." 

— Sardanapahis    (Byron}. 

IT  was  two  days  before  the  expiration  of  my  term  of 
imprisonment. 

Abigail  came  to  see  me.  Her  face  was  flushed  and 
her  eyes  shining.  Her  first  words  were: 

"  She  believes  in  you  now!     She  has  seen  him!  " 

My  heart  beat  wildly. 

"  How  was  it,  Abigail?     Tell  me  all." 

"  You  remember,"  she  said,  "  that  young  Sanders 
promised  the  Colonel  that  he  would  bring  Doctor  Huguet 
• —  or  what  he  takes  to  be  Doctor  Huguet  —  to  the  house 
to  apologize  for  his  conduct.  But  there  was  a  good  deal 
of  delay  in  the  performance  of  the  promise.  The  diffi 
culty  was  that  by  the  time  the  Doctor  became  sober 
Sanders  was  drunk;  and  when  Sanders  had  sobered 
up  sufficiently  to  remember  his  promise,  the  Doctor 
was  off  again  on  another  spree.  And  so  it  went,  until 
at  last,  by  some  strange  chance,  they  were  both  sober, 
or  comparatively  so,  at  the  same  time;  and  Sanders 
brought  the  miserable  wretch  to  see  the  Colonel.  He 
marched  him  along,  like  a  captive,  from  the  horse- 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  187 

block,  up  the  walk,  to  where  the  Colonel  sat  alone, 
looking  very  unhappy,  on  the  veranda. 

"  '  Colonel/  he  said  raising  his  hat,  '  Doctor  Huguet 
is  here,  as  I  promised,  to  make  his  apology  to  you  for 
anything  in  his  conduct  which  you  might  take  exception 
to.  The  Doctor  is  not  much  of  a  talker,  but  he  feels 
very  badly  over  this  whole  business,  sah.  But  then 
you  were  young  once  yourself,  Colonel,  and  you  know 
young  blood  will  have  its  way.  And,  although  the 
Doctor  is  not  a  boy,  yet  he  is  a  bachelor,  sah,  and 
there  are  excuses,  you  know,  sah.' 

"  I  was  in  the  garden  and  witnessed  the  whole 
scene.  The  Doctor  was  very  much  changed  by  drink 
and  late  hours;  his  eyes  were  inflamed  and  his  face  red 
and  bloated.  He  held  his  hat  in  his  hands  and  kept  turn 
ing  it  round  and  round  as  Sanders  spoke.  There  was 
dead  silence  for  a  time,  and  then  Sanders  nudged  the 
Doctor  with  his  elbow,  and  at  last  he  spoke,  in  low, 
thick  tones. 

"  'Yes,  sah,'  he  said,  '  I's  very  sorry;  and  shan't  do 
it  agin.' 

"  The  Colonel  looked  at  him  with  mingled  bewilder 
ment  and  contempt,  for  he  could  not  forget  their  last 
interview,  and  the  Doctor's  manner  of  speech  was  so 
different  from  what  he  had  expected.  He  could  not  quite 
understand  it  all.  But  I  think  some  secret  troubles  had 
softened  his  heart,  or  diverted  the  flood  of  his  wrath; 
or  he  perhaps  remembered  that  his  daughter  was  in  love 
with  this  man  and  unhappy.  I  saw  him  pass  his  hand 
across  his  eyes  as  if  to  sweep  away  a  mist,  and  then  he 
said,  looking  at  Sanders  ; 


!88  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

"'  Well,  well,  it  is  bad  enough.  The  Doctor's  con 
duct  has  been  horrible  and  disgraceful.  But  many 
things  go  wrong  in  this  world,  and  we  are  all  liable  to 
fall.  But  I  never  can  feel  toward  him  as  I  did;  he 
may,  however,  see  my  daughter  once  more,  if  he 
desires  to.' 

'  Then  he  saw  me  and  called  to  me: 

"  'Abigail,  come  here.' 

"  I  approached  the  veranda,  and,  as  I  did  so,  both 
the  visitors  looked  at  me.  Their  dull  faces  lighted  up 
with  curiosity,  and  the  Doctor's  eyes  fairly  blazed  upon 
me  with  lustful  fire.  I  shuddered. 

"  '  Abigail,"  said  the  Colonel,  '  go  to  Miss  Mary  and 
tell  her  that  Doctor  Huguet  is  here.  Gentlemen,'  he 
added,  turning  to  his  visitors,  '  will  you  enter  the 
parlor?  ' 

"He  showed  them  the  way,  and  then  he  walked  off 
to  the  stables,  lost  in  thought,  and  looking  very  un 
happy. 

"  I  gave  Mary  the  message.  She  was  delighted. 
She  sprang  to  her  feet  and  began  to  arrange  her  hair 
before  a  mirror. 

"  'Tell  him  I  will  be  there  in  a  minute,'  she  said. 

I  hurried  to  the  parlor.  Sanders  was  examining 
the  pictures.  The  Doctor  was  looking  out  of  a  window. 
I  went  up  to  him,  and  said: 

"  'Miss  Mary  will  be  here  directly,  sir.' 

"  '  And  who  may  you  be,  honey? '  he  asked. 

"  '  I  am  Abigail,'  I  replied. 

"  He  approached  me,  and,  before  I  could  anticipate 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  1 89 

what  he  was  about  to  do,  he  flung  his  arms  around  me 
and  began  to  kiss  me. 

"  I  struggled  with  him,  but  he  held  me  fast.  I  was 
about  to  cry  out,  when  he  relaxed  his  grasp  and  looked 
beyond  me,  with  his  eyes  full  of  astonishment,  to  the 
door.  I  tore  myself  loose  and  turned  around,  and  there 
in  the  doorway,  as  in  a  dark  frame,  clad  all  in  white,  was 
Miss  Mary,  very  pale  and  her  eyes  full  of  a  strange  light. 

"  '  I  could  not  help  myself,'  I  said,  approaching  her; 
'  he  took  hold  of  me.' 

"  She  paid  no  attention  to  me,  but  walked  straight 
past  me  toward  the  Doctor.  She  paused  close  to  him; 
they  looked  each  other  full  in  the  eyes  for  a  moment, 
and  then  she  gave  the  most  dreadful  shriek  I  ever  heard; 
she  clasped  her  head  between  her  hands  and  fled  from 
the  room,  white  as  a  ghost  and  screaming. 

"  '  Gor-a'mity! '  said  the  Doctor. 

"  I  ran  after  her.  I  found  her  in  her  own  room,  lying 
at  full  length  upon  the  bed,  with  her  face  in  her  hands, 
sobbing  as  if  her  heart  would  break. 

"  I  bathed  her  face  with  cold  water,  and  tried  to  com 
fort  her.  She  turned  and  looked  at  me,  with  her  eyes 
very  wide  open. 

"  '  My  God,'  she  said,  '  that  is  not  Doctor  Huguet  ! 
No!  no!  that  is  not  Doctor  Huguet!  I  went  to  him, 
Abigail,  with  my  heart  full  of  love;  but  it  was  as  if  I 
had  approached  a  window  where  a  bright-faced  child, 
in  some  sportive  game,  waited  to  laugh  in  my  face, 
and  the  curtain  was  drawn  up,  and  the  devil  glared 
suddenly  out  at  me!  O  Abigail,  it  was  dreadful.  My 
God  !  my  God  !  Such  eyes  !  Such  a  soul  !  So  dark, 


i  go 


DOCTOR  nUGUET, 


and  base,  and  despicable,  and  cruel!  The  very  devil 
looked  out  at  me.  Oh,  my  God!  where  is  Doctor 
Huguet?1 

"  And  she  flung  herself  upon  the  bed  and  sobbed 
and  sobbed.  Then  she  sprang  to  her  feet  and  cried: 

"  'Tell  him  to  go!  I  shudder  when  I  think  of  that 
dreadful  creature  being  under  the  same  roof  with  me.' 

"  I  hurried  to  the  room  and  dismissed  the  visitors. 
They  were  not  loath  to  go,  for  the  apparition  and  the 
scene  they  had  beheld  was  too  much  for  both  of  them. 
They  hastened  to  some  more  congenial  place. 

"  When  I  returned  to  Miss  Mary  she  was  sitting 
up  on  the  side  of  the  bed. 

"  '  Abigail/  she  said  to  me,  '  tell  me,  do  you  really 
believe  the  strange  story  which  that  tall,  ugly  black  man 
told  us,  that  he  was  Doctor  Huguet,  and  that  he  had 
exchanged  bodies  with  a  vile  chicken-thief? 

"  '  Certainly,'  I  replied,  '  I  believe  it  as  firmly  as  I 
believe  in  my  own  existence.  Did  he  not  talk  like 
Doctor  Huguet  ?  Did  he  not  know  all  that  Doctor 
Huguet  knew?  Did  he  not  tell  you  of  your  most  secret 
conversations  with  Doctor  Huguet  ?  Had  he  not  all  the 
learning  and  eloquence  of  Doctor  Huguet  ?  And,  now 
you  have  seen  the  other,  what  is  he  ?  Certainly  not 
the  Doctor  you  loved.  I  have  not  told  you  what  I 
knew  about  his  life  of  late,  for  the  Colonel  requested 
me  not  to  do  so,  but  his  conduct  has  been  of  the  most 
debased  and  profligate  character.  I  will  not  shock 
you  by  narrating  the  stories  that  are  repeated  by  the 
servants.' 

"  '  But,  Abigail,'  she  replied,   '  no  one  ever  heard  of 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


such  a  thing  as  two  men  exchanging  souls  and  bodies. 
It  seems  impossible.' 

"  '  Who  can  place  limits  to  the  power  of  God  or  his 
angels  ?  '  I  replied  ;  '  but  it  is  useless  to  discuss  the 
question  ;  you  know  that  something  that  was  in  Doctor 
Huguet  has  gone  out  of  him  ;  and  that  something  was 
the  thing  you  loved,  and  that  held  communion  with 
your  spirit.  Call  it  soul,  or  what  you  will,  Doctor 
Huguet  has  lost  it.' 

"  '  But,  Abigail,'  she  said,  '  if  this  be  true,  how  dread 
ful,  how  awful  must  have  been  the  sufferings  of  the 
real  Doctor  Huguet  !  Not  only  to  lose,  in  a  moment, 
home  and  family  and  wealth  and  station,  but  to  be 
spurned  by  the  one  woman  whom  he  loved  above  all 
else  in  the  world,  and  who  worshiped  the  very  ground 
he  trod  on.  Oh  !  it  is  horrible  !  And  to  think  that  I 
could  treat  him  so  cruelly.' 

"  And  here  the  sobs  and  tears  broke  out  afresh,  and 
her  frame  shook  convulsively. 

"  '  Lost,  lost  !  lost  forever  !  '  she  cried.  '  Poor,  un 
happy  man  !  Wretched  beyond  all  the  children  of  men  !  ' 

"  And  then  she  started  up  excitedly,  and  said: 
'  Where  is  he  now  ?  ' 

"  '  He  is  in  prison.' 

"  '  In  prison  ?' 
'  Yes,  in  prison.' 

"  And  then  I  told  her  all  your  dismal  story. 

"  '  I  will  go  see  him,'  she  cried;   '  quick  !  my  hat.' 

"  And  then  she  grew  ghastly  pale,  and  fell  back  upon 
the  bed,  and  shuddered,  and  cried: 

"  '  But  he  is  a  black  man  !  ' 


1C) 2  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

"  And  again  she  sobbed  and  called  on  God,  in  such 
a  way  that  I  began  to  be  alarmed  for  her  reason,  and 
hurried  out  and  brought  the  Colonel  to  her.  When  she 
saw  him  she  flung  herself  upon  his  breast  and  wept, 
and  cried  out: 

"  '  O  father  !  father  !  Doctor  Huguet  is  a  negro  !  ' 

"  The  astonishment  of  the  Colonel  cannot  be  de 
scribed.  He  thought  she  had  become  insane.  He 
petted  and  soothed  her  ;  but  she  repeated  the  dreadful 
cry  over  and  over  again,  '  Doctor  Huguet  is  a  negro!' 

"  '  What  does  she  mean,  Abigail  ?  '  he  asked. 

"  She  quieted  down  while  I  told  him  the  terrible 
story.  He  was  incredulous  —  such  a  thing  could  not  be 
possible; — but  she  joined  in,  vehemently,  in  the  argu 
ment  to  convince  him.  All  doubt  had  passed  from  her 
mind.  Her  excitement  was  intense,  and  every  now 
and  then  she  would  murmur,  as  if  to  herself:  '  My 
poor  love  !  My  poor  love  ! ' 

"  The  Colonel  was  bewildered.  The  one  thing  that 
stood  out  most  vividly  before  him  was  the  thought  that 
his  daughter — his  daughter  — was  affianced  to  a  negro  ! 
Then  came  another  reflection  —  that  this  must  be  kept 
from  the  knowledge  of  the  world.  Better  to  break  off 
the  match  with  the  drunken  wretch,  under  the  plea  of 
his  changed  habits,  than  to  admit  that  the  man  she  had 
loved  had  been  transformed  into  a  black  man.  That 
would  make  them  the  jest  of  the  world. 

"  And  so,  with  many  terms  of  endearment  and  con 
solation,  he  impressed  these  views  upon  her  and  upon 
me  likewise.  He  would  see  what  could  be  done  to  help 
the  real  Doctor  Huguet;  for  all  they  could  do  was, 


DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 


193 


without  publicity  or  exposure,  to  make  his  state  as 
comfortable  as  possible,  and  wait  for  the  passing  away 
of  the  dreadful  spell  which  had  been  cast  upon  him. 

"  Mary  was  but  slightly  consoled,  and  when  I  put  her 
to  bed  she  kissed  me,  and  sobbed  herself  to  sleep." 

This  was  Abigail's  story.  I  had  listened  to  it  with 
the  most  intense  interest  and  the  strongest  emotions. 
It  was  a  joy  to  know  that  Mary  at  last  believed  in  me, 
and  sympathized  with  me.  I  gloated  over  the  words 
which  testified  to  her  continued  love.  They  softened 
the  gloom  of  my  miseries.  I  would  treasure  them  up, 
to  be  recalled  through  all  the  dark  future. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

FREE   AGAIN. 

"  Where  am  I  now  ?     Feet,  find  me  out  a  way, 
Without  the  counsel  of  my  troubled  heart : 
I'll  follow  you  boldly  about  these  woods, 
O'er  mountains,  through  brambles,  pits  and  floods. 
Heaven,  I  hope,  will  ease  me.     I  am  sick. " 

—  Philastcr  (Beaumont  and  Fletcher). 

'""PHE  day  arrived  on  which  my  sentence  expired. 

1  I  shook  hands  with  the  jailer  and  his  assistants. 
They  regarded  me  with  a  species  of  awe.  I  certainly 
had  not  acted  like  the  notorious  Sam  Johnsing.  I 
think  they  were  rather  glad  to  get  clear  of  me  :  there 
was  to  them  something  mysterious  and  uncanny  about 
the  whole  business.  They  could  not  understand  it. 

Ben  was  on  hand  to  take  charge  of  me.  He  insisted 
that  I  must  go  to  my  own  house;  and  there  he  would 
secrete  me,  and  care  for  me,  until  the  "  hoodoo,"  as  he 
called  it,  terminated.  But  I  declined  his  kind  offer. 
I  told  him  that  the  spell  had  been  placed  upon  me 
because  I  had  not  done  my  duty  according  to  the  lights 
of  my  own  conscience,  my  inmost  monitor;  and  that  I 
could  only  escape  from  the  curse  under  which  I  suf 
fered  by  going  out  into  the  world  and  laboring  for  the 
welfare  of  the  black  race.  If  I  hid  myself,  and  lived 
a  life  of  pampered  idleness,  the  spell  would  remain 
upon  me  forever. 


DOCTOR  IWGUET. 


195 


Then  he  wanted  me  to  agree  that  I  would  receive  a 
certain  sum  of  money  from  him  every  week  —  enough 
to  pay  my  board  and  other  expenses  of  living.  He 
would  take  it  out  of  my  own  income.  But  this  offer 
also  I  declined.  I  told  him  that  I  desired  to  show  the 
negroes  that  the  fault  of  their  not  rising  to  greater 
heights  of  distinction,  and  so  overcoming  the  cruel 
prejudices  which  surrounded  them,  was  because  they 
did  not  address  themselves  to  the  task  of  success  with 
a  white  man's  brain  and  energy.  I  proposed,  I  said, 
to  throw  myself,  bare-handed,  into  the  shock  and  bat 
tle  of  life,  and  win  by  sheer  force  of  intellect.  In  the 
day  of  my  success  it  would  not  do  to  be  subject 
to  the  reproach  that  I  was  indebted,  for  my  triumph,  to 
the  fact  that  I  had  been  in  receipt  of  an  income  which 
placed  me  above  want,  and  gave  me  an  advantage  over 
other  black  men.  No!  I  would  go  into  the  conflict  as 
a  negro,  and  win  as  a  negro,  or  fail  as  a  negro;  but  I 
had  no  fear  of  failure.  I  felt  so  confident  of  the  ad 
vantages  which  my  thoroughly  equipped  intelligence 
gave  me  that  I  was  sure  I  should  revolutionize  the 
whole  social  status  of  the  negroes  of  the  entire  world. 
Yes,  I  said,  the  new  era  for  the  black  man  of  America 
would  date  from  my  going  forth  from  these  walls  to-day, 
even  as  the  calendar  of  the  Moslem  begins  with  the 
Hegira  of  Mahommed  from  Mecca  to  Medina. 

And  so,  shaking  hands  warmly  with  my  faithful 
friend,  we  parted,  and  I  started  forth  upon  my  mis 
sion. 

1  had  given  the  subject  a  good  deal  of  thought,  dur 
ing  my  imprisonment,  and  it  had  seemed  to  me  that,  if 


196  DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 

I  was  to  teach  the  colored  people,  it  would  be  well  to 
seek  a  place  as  a  professor  in  some  college  or  uni 
versity.  This  would  give  me  a  vantage-ground  —  a 
standing — from  which  I  could  readily  move  to  a  higher 
level  of  statesmanship  and  statecraft. 

There   were   two    institutions   of  learning  in  C , 

both  of  prominence.  I  would  make  my  first  applica 
tions  there. 

I  sought  out  the  president  of  the  most  important  of 
these  first.  I  found  him  a  pleasant,  smiling,  affable 
gentleman,  with  gray  hair,  and  gold  spectacles  on 
nose,  an  eminently  respectable,  scholastic-looking  per 
sonage;  a  minister  of  the  gospel  and  a  pillar  of  society. 
He  received  me  courteously  and  asked  my  business. 
I  told  him  I  wanted  an  opportunity  to  teach  in  his 
college,  in  however  humble  a  capacity,  or  for  however 
small  a  compensation.  His  face  broke  into  a  broad 
smile,  which  he  politely  tried  to  suppress. 

"  What  can  you  teach?  "  he  asked,  good-naturedly. 

Latin,    Greek,     French,    German,    Italian,    music, 
English  literature,  or  medicine,"  I  replied. 

He  looked  surprised  and  handed  me  a  copy  of  a 
Greek  work,  and  requested  me  to  translate  a  few  lines 
of  it  into  English.  I  did  so  readily  and  correctly. 

His  astonishment  was  great,  and  his  manner  became 
more  respectful.  He  asked  me  several  questions  as  to 
where  I  had  been  educated,  all  the  time  studying  my 
rude,  black  features  with  a  bewildered  expression.  He 
offered  me  a  chair.  I  inquired  whether  there  was  any 
place  in  his  institution  I  could  secure,  in  which  I  could 
make  use  of  my  knowledge  to  earn  a  living. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


197 


He  politely  told  me  that  he  regretted  to  say  there 
was  none;  that  his  institution  was  purely  and  solely 
for  the  education  of  white  students,  and  that  they 
would  not  receive  learning  from  one  of  my  color.  He 
added  that  such  prejudices  were  foolish,  he  was  ready 
to  acknowledge,  but  they  existed,  and  as  a  practical 
man  he  had  to  recognize  them ;  if  he  employed  a  single 
negro  tutor  in  his  school  he  might  just  as  well  close  up 
his  doors.  He  said  they  needed  a  servant,  however, 
to  look  after  the  stables,  and 

But  I  interrupted  him,  and  replied  that  I  did  not 
want  to  do  menial  work;  and,  thanking  him  for  his 
courtesy,  I  bowed  myself  out. 

I  was  not  discouraged;  I  expected  rebuffs.  I  made 
my  way  to  the  other  institution.  The  head  of  it  was 
very  unlike  the  gentleman  I  had  just  seen.  He  was 
beetle-browed,  dark  —  dark  as  a  mulatto  —  with  great 
quantities  of  black  hair  on  his  hands  and  arms;  in  fact, 
his  hands  were  furred,  so  to  speak,  except  on  the 
palms  and  knuckles.  I  could  not  help  but  think  of 
Darwin  and  Evolution  and  the  great  apes.  His  voice 
was  coarse  and  gruff,  and  his  manner  brusque.  He 
had  none  of  the  sweetness  and  suavity  of  the  other 
gentleman.  He  roared  with  laughter,  in  my  very  face, 
when  he  heard  my  proposition;  and  did  not  even 
trouble  himself  to  test  my  attainments,  or  make  any 
explanations,  but  rudely  ordered  me  out  of  the  room. 
He  told  me  he  had  no  time  to  waste  in  such  nonsense. 

Still  I  was  not  discouraged.  If  I  could  not  get  em 
ployment  in  any  institution  of  learning,  at  least  the  mer 
chants'  .stores  were  open  to  me,  J  must  find  a  resting- 

*  -  •  '      $7    • 


198  D OC TOR  HUG  UE  T. 

place,  a  fulcrum,  for  the  Archimedean  lever  with  which 
I  proposed  to  move  the  world. 

I  walked  past  several  stores  and  scanned  the  propri 
etors  and  the  establishments  carefully.  At  last  I  came 
to  a  large  dry-goods  shop,  with  many  salesmen.  A  be 
nevolent-looking  old  gentleman  seemed  to  be  in  charge 
of  the  place.  I  entered.  I  think  the  employer  was  of 
Quaker  stock,  for  he  used  the  "  thee"  and  "  thou" 
of  that  quaint,  interesting  and  admirable  people. 

I  told  him  I  wanted  a  situation  as  a  salesman;  that 
I  would  work  for  the  first  month  for  nothing  (I  had 
money  enough  to  carry  me  along  for  a  time);  and  after 
that  I  would  ask  such  small  stipend  as  he  thought  would 
be  reasonable,  sufficient  merely  to  pay  my  board. 

The  old  gentleman  smiled  on  me  blandly  and  replied: 

"  Thee  cannot  belong  to  this  place,  friend,  or  thee7 
would  know  that  people  of  thy  color  cannot  be  em 
ployed,  side  by  side,  with  white  people,  in  such  an  es 
tablishment  as  this.  If  I  employed  thee,  and  thou 
wert  ready  to  work  for  nothing,  still  it  would  not  do. 
The  mere  sight  of  thy  black  face  (I  say  it  kindly,  friend), 
behind  this  counter,  would  drive  away  every  white  cus 
tomer  from  my  store  and  bring  me  to  bankruptcy." 

"  Is  there  no  store  in  which  I  can  get  employment  ?" 

"  No,"  he  replied;  "  not  one.  The  line  of  color  is 
clearly  drawn." 

"  Are  there  any  negro  stores  ?"  I  asked. 

"  No,"  he  replied;  "  thy  people  are  generally  poor 
and  would  scarcely  be  able  to  maintain  stores;  and  if 
they  were  established  the  better  off  among  them  would 
probably  prefer  to  patronize  the  white  stores,  for  they 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


199 


are,  naturally  enough,  ambitious  to  be  something  higher 
than  their  fellows.  The  aristocratic  distinctions  are  as 
clearly  defined  among  thy  people  as  among  the  whites, 
as  thou  art  probably  aware." 

My  heart  began  to  sink.  What  a  dreadful  and  all- 
pervading  thing  this  race-feeling  was.  No  outlet  for  a 
black  man  among  the  whites,  and  none  among  his  own 
color  !  No  wonder  they  were  forced  down  into  servile 
places,  such  as  waiters,  barbers,  etc.  But  I  would  not 
be  driven  in  that  direction.  I  would  continue  the 
fight.  I  thanked  the  pleasant-looking  old  gentleman 
for  his  courtesy  and  politeness,  and  started  out  again. 

I  walked  for  some  time  before  I  had  the  courage  to 
make  another  attempt.  At  length  I  passed  a  lumber 
yard.  In  the  office  a  fat  man  sat  perched  upon 
a  high,  three-legged  stool,  making  entries  in  a  book. 
I  bowed  politely  to  him,  taking  off  my  hat  and  stand 
ing  humbly  before  him,  and  asked  him  if  he  needed  a 
clerk. 

"  A  clerk  !  "  he  replied,  in  a  loud  voice,  staring  at 
me  insolently. 

"  Yes,"  I  replied  ;  "  I  am  a  book-keeper  and  have  a 
thorough  education.  I  can  speak  French  and  German 
as  well  as  English.  If  I  could  make  myself  useful  to 
you  I  would  work  for  a  very  small  compensation." 

He  hopped  down  off  his  chair,  and,  pointing  to  the 
door,  yelled  at  me  : 

"  Get  out  of  here  !  It's  a  pretty  state  of  things  when 
d — d  niggers,  like  you,  can  speak  French  and  German 
and  know  more  than  their  betters,  and  ask  to  be  book 
keepers  !  Go  down  to  the  levee  and  yank  cotton 


2QO  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

bales.  That's  the  kind  of  work  you  are  fit  for  !  Out 
of  here  !  " 

I  retired  before  this  burst  of  vituperative  bigotry, 
perfectly  overwhelmed. 

But  why  pursue  further  the  wretched  narrative  of  rebuffs 
and  disappointments  ?  All  day  long  I  passed  from  place 
to  place,  trying  to  find  employment  fit  for  a  gentle 
man.  Sometimes  I  was  treated  civilly,  sometimes 
insolently,  and  sometimes  canes  and  yard-sticks  were 
raised  over  my  head. 

I  had  the  money  to  pay  my  board  in  a  comfortable 
hotel,  but  all  such  were  shut  in  my  face ;  and  I  had  to  put 
up  for  the  night  in  a  low,  dirty  haunt  of  men  of  my 
own  color. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  I  could  get  to  sleep.  The 
high  hopes  and  aspirations  with  which  I  had  started 
out  in  the  morning  were  all  blasted  and  withered.  I 
began  to  lose  confidence  in  my  own  theories.  The 
Archimedean  lever  would  not  work.  I  could  not  find 
a  fulcrum  for  it.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  eloquence 
of  Daniel  Webster  or  the  learning  of  William  E.  Glad 
stone,  wrapped  up  in  a  black  hide,  would  amount  to 
nothing.  The  saddest  part  of  the  business  was  the 
dreadful  revelation  of  the  baseness  of  human  na 
ture  which  I  had  witnessed;  for,  during  the  day, 
I  had  made  applications  for  employment  to  several 
of  my  intimate  friends,  whose  faces  had  never  be 
fore  been  turned  to  mine  save  when  wreathed 
in  obsequious  smiles,  and  I  had  started  back  before 
the  dark  and  scowling  brows  with  which  they 
greeted  a  helpless  inferior.  The  world  is  a  wretched- 


DJCTJX  1WGUET.  2OI 

looking  object  viewed  from  below,  but  grand  and 
gaudy  as  stage  scenery  to  him  who  can  contemplate  it 
from  above.  The  highest  test  of  a  true  gentleman 
is  gentleness  to  servants  and  courtesy  to  the  unfortu 
nate.  The  man  who  can  address  a  beggar  with  the 
same  tones  of  voice  which  he  will  use  toward  a 
prince  is  one  of  nature's  noblemen — yea,  a  species  of 
demi-god,  and  fit  to  be  worshiped  by  common  hu 
manity. 

I  had  also  found  that  it  was  impossible  for  me  to 
force  my  way  into  many  of  the  trades  and  mechanical 
pursuits,  even  as  an  apprentice.  They  all  had  their 
laws  limiting  the  number  who  could  learn  the  business. 

What  was  left  for  me?  I  must  either  resort  to  servile 
employment  or  hard  physical  toil. 

What  should  I  do?  Should  I  go  back  to  Ben  and 
avail  myself  of  his  offer  to  support  me  out  of  my  own 
funds,  while  fighting  this  dreary  battle  of  life?  Would 
the  negroes  believe  in  me  and  follow  me  if  I  appeared 
to  be  an  idle  pensioner  on  some  other  man's  bounty;  or 
if,  with  the  evil  reputation  of  Sam  Johnsing,  I  had  no 
visible  means  of  support?  Would  not  my  going  to 
work  to  earn  an  honest  living,  by  hard  toil,  be  the  very 
best  way  to  get  clear  of  the  evil  fame  and  name  of  that 
lazy  chicken-thief?  If  I  was  to  lead  the  negroes  to 
better  things  I  must  first  win  their  confidence.  Yes,  I 
had  better  go  to  the  levee  in  the  morning  and  seek 
employment  as  a  stevedore,  and  pursue  it  until  some 
thing  better  presented  itself. 

But  my  heart  was  furious  within  me  when  I  thought 
that,  with  all  my  education  and  ability,  there  was  no 


2Q2  DOCTOR  HUGVET. 

resource  for  me  but  the  hardest  physical  toil.  I  struck 
out  in  the  darkness,  as  if  I  would  pound  down  the  walls 
of  caste  with  my  fists,  but  it  was  in  vain.  I  struck  only 
the  invulnerable  air,  as  unassailable  as  the  prejudices 
which  surrounded  me. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE   SCENE   SHIFTS. 

"  My  heart  is  like  an  anvil  unto  sorrow, 
Which  beats  upon  it  like  the  Cyclops'  hammeis, 
And  with  the  noise  turns  up  my  giddy  brain. " 

—  Marlowe. 

WHEN  I  rose  next  morning  I  was  half  sick.     I  had 
a  ragingpain  in  my  head  and  a  feverish  feeling.    I 
attributed  both  to  the  ferment  of  my  spirit  and  my  dis 
appointment  and  rage   at  the   overthrow  of  my  high- 
seated  hopes  and  plans. 

I  ate  the  miserable  breakfast  placed  before  me,  and 
at  an  early  hour  was  on  the  levee  seeking  work.  Here 
the  huge  body  and  the  great  limbs,  which  had  been 
my  curse  so  often,  stood  me  in  good  stead,  and  I  was 
accepted  and  put  to  work,  with  a  number  of  other 
negroes,  unloading  a  ship  filled  with  coal.  It  was 
very  hard  work.  The  sun  was  broiling  hot,  shining 
down  from  an  unclouded  sky,  and  its  rays  beat  piti 
lessly  upon  me,  and  were  reflected  with  added  force  from 
the  great  sheet  of  water.  And  my  perturbed  soul 
raged  within  me  at  the  limitations  of  my  condition. 
Here  was  I  —  Doctor  Anthony  Huguet  —  a  man  com 
pletely  cultured  and  profoundly  learned,  working  side 
by  side  with  a  gang  of  creatures  who  knew  little  more 
than  the  street-car  horses,  and  had  no  higher  instincts; 
and  all  my  education  was  locked  up  within  me  per 
fectly  useless.  I  could  not  avail  myself  of  it;  I  could 


204 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


not  even  make  an  exhibition  of  it,  for  those  around  me 
would  not  understand  it;  Greek  and  Latin  would  be  no 
more  to   them  than    the  chattering  of  a  chimpanzee  — 
syllables  without  meaning. 

The  sweat  rolled  from  me  at  every  pore;  the  blood 
rushed  into  my  head  in  torrents,  under  the  force  of  my 
unhappy  thoughts;  the  merciless  sun  heat  down  upon 
me  unceasingly,  and  the  exhausted  air  seemed  dead 
and  pulseless,  when  suddenly  the  ship  and  masts  and 
men  all  began  to  whirl  wildly  around  me.  I  staggered, 
and  felt  that  I  was  falling  down,  down  into  the  black 
hold  of  the  ship,  and  then  I  knew  no  more. 

This  is  not  the  ship's  hold  —  no;  I  am  on  a  bed;  a 
soft  and  comfortable  bed.  I  am  not  lying  on  the  black 
and  angular  anthracite.  How  did  I  come  here?  Did 
I  not  fall  among  the  coals?  But  my  thoughts  grow 
dim.  I  can  scarcely  hold  them.  I  wander  off  again. 
I  dream  that  I  hear  once  more  the  voice  of  the  mate  giv 
ing  orders.  I  would  jump  to  obey  him.  No;  I  cannot; 
I  am  weak;  oh,  so  weak;  I  can  scarcely  lift  my  hand 
fromthebed.  Yes,  I  am  in  abed;  that  is  certain.  And 
some  one  has  lifted  up  my  head  and  is  giving  me  a  drink 
—  a  drink  deliciously  cool.  With  an  effort  I  rally  my 
faculties  and  open  my  eyes.  A  great  black  face  is 
close  to  mine.  Who  is  it?  I  seem  to  know  it;  and  yet 
I  do  not.  It  looks  at  me  with  great  kindness  and  pity. 
And  then,  as  if  out  of  a  dream,  it  comes,  and  I  re 
member  it.  It  is  the  face  of  the  woman  \  struck  that 
fateful  night  when  I  first  entered  the  loathsome  carcass 
of  Sam  Jojjnsing.  Yes;  it  is  Sam  Johnsing's  wife.  If 


DOCTOR  HUGUETt 


205 


glared  at  me  then,  but  how  tenderly  it  looks  upon 
me  now.  Again  she  lifts  my  head,  and  places 
some  pieces  of  broken  ice  in  my  mouth.  Conscious 
ness  floats  away  from  me  for  a  space.  I  seem  to 
drift,  drift  on  a  great  dark  river,  with  clouded,  gloomy 
shores.  And  then  I  feel  that  some  one  is  again  giving 
me  a  drink  —  this  time  a  warm  and  pleasant  drink  — 
and  a  voice  says,  soft  and  low: 

"  Dar,  honey,  dat's  beef-tea;  dat  will  do  you  good. 
Does  you  know  me,  honey?" 

With  a  great  effort  I  replied: 

"  Yes." 

And  then  something  came  softly  from  the  other  side 
of  the  bed,  into  the  range  of  my  vision.  Oh,  what  a 
bright,  fair,  glowing,  beauteous  face  it  was!  I  knew  it 
well;  it  was  the  face  of  Abigail.  I  tried  to  utter  my 
joy,  but  she  laid  her  hand  upon  my  arm  and  said: 

Do  not  speak.  You  have  been  very  sick  for  more 
than  a  month  past;  you  have  had  brain  fever.  But  the 
crisis  is  past.  You  are  better  now.  The  doctor  says 
you  are  out  of  danger.  Mary  and  I  have  been  here  every 
day,  and  Colonel  Ruddiman  has  supplied  all  your  wants. 
But  Emeline,  here,  has  been  your  good  angel.  Before 
we  knew  you  were  here  (you  were  recognized  on  the 
levee  and  carried  hither),  this  poor  woman  had  sold  or 
pawned  all  she  had,  even  to  the  cradle  of  the  baby,  to 
furnish  you  with  medicines  and  pay  doctors' bills.  You 
would  have  died  but  for  her  faithful  and  unremitting 
devotion.  Don't  try  to  speak!  I  tell  you  all  this  that 
you  may  know  you  have  friends  who  love  you  and  be 
lieve  in  you,  and  that  you  may  have  a  cheerful  heart 


206  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

and  become  well.  But  see!  here  is  Mary.  She  went 
to  the  druggist's  for  some  medicine." 

I  had  taken  and  pressed  the  hand  of  the  poor  woman 
I  had  once  so  brutally  assailed.  I  reached  my  other 
hand  out  to  Abigail;  and  then  I  was  conscious  of  some 
one  entering  the  door,  and  I  heard  the  rustle  of  a  dress 
and  Abigail  saying,  in  a  whisper: 

"  The  delirium  is  past,  but  he  is  very  weak." 

My  poor,  throbbing  heart  leaped  and  fluttered  in  my 
breast,  like  a  wounded  bird;  and  the  next  instant  a 
great  feeling  of  abasement  came  over  me,  as  I  remem 
bered  my  condition;  and  1  would  have  sunk  through 
the  bed — I  would  have  hid  my  deformed  face  and 
head  from  the  sight  of  her  I  loved  so  profoundly. 
Oh,  the  wretchedness  of  him  who  loves  and  knows 
that  he  cannot  be  loved  again  ! 

And  then  there  came,  where  my  eyes  could  rest 
upon  it,  the  lovely  face  of  Mary  Ruddiman.  What 
a  shrinking  of  her  whole  being  there  was  when  her 
eyes  encountered  my  poor  countenance;  and  then  what 
an  infinite  pity  shone  out  of  every  line  of  her  gracious 
and  dignified  face;  and  what  a  sorrow  trembled  and 
thrilled  in  her  voice,  as  she  said  in  low,  sweet  tones: 

"  Oh,  my  poor  friend,  my  poor,  poor  friend  !  God 
shield  and  deliver  you  !" 

"  Mary,  Mary,"  I  said,  but  so  feebly  that  she  could 
scarcely  catch  my  words,  "  while  it  delights  the  very 
depths  of  my  soul  to  see  you,  and  to  know  that  your 
pity  reaches  out  to  me,  like  a  divine  hand,  across 
the  abyss  of  all  my  wretchedness,  yet  do  not  look 
at  me.  I  cannot  bear  that  this  miserable  carcass 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


2O7 


should  stand  between  me  and  your  sympathy;  or 
that  the  eyes  I  love  so  deeply  should  rest  upon  this 
face  which  I  abhor  with  such  intensity.  Sit,  I  beg 
you,  where  I  can  look  upon  you,  but  turn  your  eyes 
away  from  my  countenance." 

She  did  so.      She  was  crying  softly. 

"  Doctor  Huguet,"  she  said, — "  for  I  firmly  believe 
you  are,  indeed,  Doctor  Huguet  —  you  cannot  tell  how 
I  have  grieved  over  your  dreadful  sorrow  ;  for  I  feel 
that  it  was  my  foolish  ambition  that  caused  it.  I  was 
your  temptress,  your  evil  genius.  I  led  you  away  from 
your  highest  instincts.  I,  who  should  have  encouraged 
you  in  all  goodness,  degraded  you  to  the  low  level  of 
low  ambitions  —  as  if  there  were  anything  higher  or 
nobler  in  all  this  world  than  duty  faithfully  performed. 
For  me  —  for  my  acts  —  you  have  suffered.  But  night 
and  day  I  have  stormed  heaven  with  my  prayers  for 
your  deliverance  ;  and  I  feel  that  the  merciful  Christ 
will  not  punish  you  forever  for  the  crime  of  a  silly 
woman,  and  that  this  dreadful  doom  will  pass  away 
from  you." 

I  tried  to  stop  her,  but  she  spoke  with  great  rapidity 
and  earnestness. 

"  Do  not  blame  yourself,"  I  said.  "  If  you  have 
sinned  it  was  for  love  of  me.  You  had  no  thought  of 
ambition  for  yourself;  your  dreams  were  all  of  my 
greatness  and  my  glory.  Your  fault  was  nobler  than 
any  possible  virtue.  God  will  not  relentlessly  punish 
such  an  act  of  unselfish  devotion.  We  will  yet  be 
reunited.  I  feel  it  in  my  heart.  I  have  that  faith  in 


2o8  DOCTOR  ttUCUET. 

the  justice  of  the  invisible  world  that  I  am  sure  we  will 
some  day  be  happy  together  again." 

l£  is  marvelous  what  a  physical  tonic  there  is  in  love 
and  joy.  They  had  lifted  me  up  like  wine;  but  Abigail 
was  wiser  than  we,  as  lovers,  could  possibly  be,  and 
stopped  our  conversation.  She  laid  her  finger  upon  my 
thin,  rapidly  beating  pulse,  and  then,  with  some  final 
directions  to  Erneline,  took  Mary  away  with  her. 

Oh,  how  delightful  was  the  sweet  sleep  as  it  crept 
over  my  senses!  The  little  cabin,  with  the  sunshine 
flooding  in  through  the  open  door,  faded  slowly  away, 
but  the  face  of  Mary  grew  brighter  as  the  shadows  of 
slumber  mustered  thick  around  me.  And  joy  sat  in 
my  heart;  and  Hope  stood,  with  fair  face  and  bright 
torch,  the  eternal  angel  of  human  life,  pointing  forward 
to  sweet  and  flowery  paths  of  peace  and  love;  and  my 
poor  bruised  and  battered  soul,  scarred  with  wounds 
and  trampled  under  the  feet  of  Fate,  glowed  ami 
expanded  and  shone  like  a  great  star —  a  world  of  hap 
piness. 

Oh  Love,  thou  art  the  medicine  of  the  soul  ! 
Life  without  love  is  half-death.  Woe  unto  him  whom 
nothing  loves  !  Better  were  it  for  him  that  he  were  in 
his  grave. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

I   FIND    MY   MISSION. 

"  And  is  there  care  in  heaven  ?     And  is  there  love 

In  heavenly  spirits  to  these  creatures  base, 
That  may  compassion  of  their  evils  move  ? 

There  is;  else  much  more  wretched  were  the  case 
Of  men  than  beasts." 

—  The  Faerie  Quecne  (Spenser). 

IT  was  but  a  few  days  until  I  was  sitting  up  in  an 
easy-chair,  nourished  by  all  sorts  of  nutritious 
foods  and  beverages.  I  gained  rapidly  in  strength, 
for  my  mind  was  in  a  state  of  comparative  peace. 

I  had  fought  the  good  fight.  I  had  done  my  best. 
I  had  been  worsted.  The  issue  now  was  with  Him 
who  had  placed  me  in  this  condition.  I  could  only 
"suffer  and  be  strong."  My  way  would  be  pointed 
out  to  me.  But  how  sweet  it  was  to  look  out  over  the 
fields  and  gardens,  and  the  humble  habitations  of  men, 
and  remember  that  I  possessed  the  sympathy  and  love 
of  the  good  and  noble,  and  that  miles  away  they  were 
thinking  kindly  of  me. 

My  friends  came  often  to  see  me.  Their  visits  pro 
voked  no  comment,  for  there  is  a  great  deal  of  gentle 
charity  in  the  South  from  the  white  people,  especially 
the  ladies,  to  the  sick  and  poor  among  the  negroes. 
Indeed,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  in  view  of  the  political 

rivalries  and  hostilities,  the  strongest  bonds  of  love  ex- 
14  309 


210  DO  CTOR  HUG UE T. 

tend  from  the  one  race  to  the  other.  I  have  known  a 
struggling  white  gentleman,  with  but  a  small  income, 
set  aside  one-fourth  of  it  every  month  for  the  support 
of  his  "  mammy,"  an  ancient  and  helpless  nurse,  whose 
black  breasts  had  fed  him  in  his  infancy;  and  I  have 
known  the  dark  foster-mother  to  love  her  white  charge 
more  tenderly  than  her  own  offspring.  It  is  a  great 
pity  that,  among  such  noble  and  generous  natures, 
political  differences  should  ever  arise  to  array  them 
against  each  other,  when  they  should  all  dwell  together 
in  peaceful  Christian  love  and  charity.  But  time  will 
sweep  away  these  evils,  and  leave  only  good  behind  ; 
for  God  rules,  and  His  path  is  toward  the  betterment 
of  mankind. 

I  was  a  great  source  of  wonderment  and  speculation 
to  the  negroes  around  me.  They  had  known,  and  de 
spised,  and  feared  Sam  Johnsing,  for  their  little  pos 
sessions  had  never  been  safe  from  his  midnight  raids. 
And  they  saw  that  I  was  Sam  Johnsing,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  that  I  was  not  Sam  Johnsing.  It  was  whis 
pered  about  among  them  that  something  uncanny  had 
happened  to  Sam.  As  I  sat  in  the  shade  of  the  hut, 
dozing,  one  sunny  afternoon,  I  wakened  to  hear  this 
whispered  conversation  from  the  inside  of  the  house: 

"  I  tells  you, "  said  the  Reverend  J.  J.  Love,  a  preacher 
among  them,  "  I  tells  you  dat  he  is  no  Sam  Johnsing. 
Didn't  he  kote  de  Bible  to  me  yesterday?  What  did 
Sam  eber  know  about  de  Bible?  What  do  you  think, 
Sister  Emerline?" 

"  Well,  I  don't  know  for  suah,"  said  Emcline;  "  he 
is  and  he  isn't.  He  is  Sam  and  he  isn't.  He  don't  act 


DOCTOR  HUG  UET.  211 

like  Sam.  He  allays  speaks  so  soft  and  kind,  jist  like 
a  white  gcm'man.  And  I  tried  him  yesterday;  I  left 
some  money  on  de  table  near  him,  and  I  watch  him. 
He  never  tetched  dat  money!  Sam  would  a  stole  it 
quicker'n  a  wink." 

"  Dat's  so,"  said  another  voice;  "  Sam  would  a  stole 
anything  he  could  laid  his  han's  on." 

"  And  did  you  heah,"  said  the  preacher,  "  how  pretty 
he  talked  'bout  God;  and  'bout  de  niggers  bein'  honest 
and  'ligious  ?" 

''  Yes,"  said  the  third  voice,  "  I  tells  you  Sam  is 
dead,  and  de  angel  Gabriel  has  done  gone  and  took 
'session  ob  his  body.  Dat's  my  'pinion." 

"  No,"  said  the  Reverend  J.  J.  Love,  "  not  de  angel 
Gabriel,  but  Fader  Abraham." 

"  Well,  I  don't  car',"  replied  the  other,  "  it's  eder  de 
angel  Gabriel  or  Fader  Abraham  or  Moses  or  John  de 
Baptis';  no  common  nigger  ebcr  talked  like  dat. 
When  he  gets  strong,  brcss  de  Lord,  we  must  make 
him  preach  for  us." 

This  proposition  met  with  general  assent;  it  set  me 
to  thinking. 

Why  not  ?  I  was  a  negro,  cast  among  negroes,  but 
with  a  white  man's  education  and  eloquence.  Was  this 
the  path  that  was  marked  out  for  me  ?  Was  this  my 
avenue  to  do  good?  Had  I  been  led,  through  all  my 
miseries  and  misfortunes,  to  this  task  ?  And  why  not? 
Is  it  possible  that  the  great  and  perfect  mechan 
ism  of  the  universe,  which  has  endured  for  so 
many  billions  of  years,  does  not  extend  to  the 
details  of  men's  lives  ?  Is  not  God  building  up  His 


212  DOC  TOR  HUG  UE  T. 

splendid  civilization,  on  this  planet,  with  our  life- 
works,  even  as  He  fattens  the  productive  soil  with  the 
death  of  plants  and  animals?  Who  can  ask  the  pur 
pose  of  his  own  being,  unless  he  can  comprehend  the 
whole  scheme  of  Divinity,  broad  enough  to  inclose  the 
fathomless  depths  of  the  stars,  and  enduring  enough 
to  reach  throughout  eternity?  Can  the  plant-root,  as 
it  reaches  down  into  the  earth  and  eliminates  organic 
matter  for  its  sustenance,  ask  what  living  thing  died, 
centuries  ago,  to  furnish  it  with  that  storehouse  of  food  ? 
Can  the  artist  tell  at  what  point,  in  the  long  line  of  his 
peasant  ancestors,  there  was  imported  into  their  blood 
that  touch  of  genius  which  has  flowered  out  in  himself, 
in  beauty  and  glory,  for  the  pleasure  of  man  and  the 
up-building  of  society?  No;  as  one  of  the  wisest  of 
the  wits  of  America  once  said,  "  we  cannot  control  the 
character  of  the  cards  that  are  dealt  to  us  in  the  great 
game  of  life,  but  we  can  at  least  play  them  to  the  very 
best  of  our  ability."  It  is  the  duty  of  every  one  to  do 
his  utmost  in  the  sphere  of  action  assigned  to  him. 
The  bricks  in  the  foundation-wall  are  necessary  to  the 
glorious  statue  which  they  uphold.  They  are  not  the 
statue,  but  the  statue  cannot  stand  without  them.  If 
William  Burness,  the  poor  gardener  of  Ayr,  had  not 
done  his  whole  duly,  in  the  midst  of  grinding  poverty 
and  wretchedness,  we  should  have  lost  the  sweetest 
lyrics  in  the  language,  written  by  his  immortal  son.  It 
is  the  black  mud  that  feeds  the  lily.  It  is  from  the 
refuse  that  the  sweetest  odors,  freighting  the  zephyrs, 
are  distilled. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

DOING  MY  WORK. 

"  And  now  such  is  thy  stand,  while  thou  dost  deal 
Desired  justice  to  the  public  weal, 
Like  Solon's  self,  explain'st  the  knotty  laws 
With  endless  labors,  whilst  thy  learning  draws 
No  less  of  praise,  than  readers,  of  all  kinds 
Of  worthiest  knowledge  that  can  take  men's  minds." 

—  Underwoods  (Ben  Jonson}. 

A  MILE  from  my  hut,  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city, 
among  fields  and  orchards,  there  stood  an  old 
barn,  dilapidated  and  deserted.  The  farm  to  which 
it  belonged  had  been  sold  for  debt,  and  was 
now  owned  by  a  money-lender  in  an  adjacent 
State.  He  found  it  difficult  to  rent  the  farm,  and  the 
negroes  had  taken  possession  of  the  barn  for  their  Sun 
day  religious  exercises.  Here,  once  a  week,  they  as 
sembled  in  great  numbers,  and  worshiped  God  in  their 
own  emotional  and  excitable  way,  with  shouting,  sing 
ing,  prayers  and  exhortations.  Here  my  new  friend, 
the  Reverend  J.  J.  Love,  officiated  with  great  zeal  and 
unction.  He  was  wholly  illiterate,  but  he  had  a  won 
derful  memory,  and  he  had  picked  up  many  Bible 
phrases,  which  he  sometimes  applied  in  ludicrous  fash 
ion.  He  was  tall,  spare,  white-headed,  with  bushy 
gray  eye-brows,  a  face  all  seamed  with  lines  and  wrin 
kles,  and  a  certain  dignity  of  manner.  There  are  three 


214 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


things  which  testify  to  the  inherent  civilizability  of  the 
negro  race:  First,  their  desire  for  learning  ;  second, 
their  strong  religious  instincts;  and  third,  their  wish 
to  be  respectable  and  to  imitate  the  best  examples 
given  them  by  the  whites.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  that 
the  red  men  manifest  any  of  these  traits;  hence  I 
argue  that  the  negro  race  will  rise  upon  the  breast  of 
the  great  tide  of  civilization,  while  the  Indian  is  very 
apt  to  be  buried  under  it. 

I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  negroes  needed 
education  even  more  than  exhortation.  Their  reason 
required  development  more  than  their  emotions. 

My  first  step  was,  as  soon  as  I  was  able  to  walk,  to 

go  into  C and  find  who  had  charge  of  this  barn. 

It  was  my  old  acquaintance,  Buryhill,  as  affable  and  as 
voracious  as  ever.  I  soon  came  to  an  understanding 
with  him,  which  I  took  the  precaution  to  reduce  to 
writing  and  have  him  sign.  For  a  small  sum  paid 
down  (I  got  the  money  from  Ben),  I  rented  the  barn 
for  a  year,  with  the  right  to  repair  and  improve  it.  I 
then  purchased  shingles  to  patch  the  roof,  sash  for 
windows,  lumber  enough  to  floor  it  and  provide  it  with 
a  platform,  tables,  benches,  etc.  I  then  laid  in  a  sup 
ply  of  books  and  other  school  necessaries.  I  hired 
negro  carpenters  —  there  were  some  who  had  learned 
their  trade  in  the  old  slave  days  —  and  I  soon  had  a 
very  comfortable  and  cleanly  school-house. 

The  negroes  had  watched  these  proceedings  with 
great  interest,  and  some  of  them  had  voluntarily  assisted 
in  the  work.  When  all  was  ready,  I  gave  notice  that 
I  proposed  to  open  a  school  for  the  colored  people,  not 


DOCTOR  IfUGUET. 


2I5 


for  the  children  alone,  but  for  persons  of  all  ages.  In 
the  daytime  the  little  ones  were  to  be  taught;  and  at 
night  the  men  and  women,  who  \vere  busy  with  their 
work  during  the  day,  could  receive  the  benefits  of  edu 
cation  free  of  charge. 

It  was  a  motley  gathering  that  met  me  the  first  night. 
The  whole  country-side  had  turned  out.  Old  and  young, 
male  and  female,  were  there  —  the  little  pickaninny  and 
the  gray-haired  deacon  of  the  church  sat  side  by  side. 
The  Reverend  J.  J.  Love  was  conspicuous  in  the  front 
of  the  crowd. 

My  purpose  was  to  instruct  them,  and  to  do  so  I 
must  get  into  rapport  with  their  minds.  I  must  not 
shoot  above  their  heads,  and  I  must  make  knowledge 
useful  and  interesting.  I  must,  as  far  as  possible,  im 
itate  the  example  of  Christ,  and  teach  in  anecdotes, 
for  the  "  parables  "  are  simply  stories,  containing,  each 
one,  an  instructive  moral. 

I  had  the  school-books  piled  up  on  my  desk.  I  first 
divided  my  scholars  into  those  who  knew  the  alphabet, 
those  who  knew  how  to  read  and  write,  and  those  who 
were  totally  illiterate.  The  greater  part  of  the  audience 
belonged  to  the  latter  class.  I  distributed  the  books 
accordingly.  I  asked  the  Reverend  J.  J.  Love  what  he 
would  study.  He  replied,  pompously,  "  'Stronomy." 
I  gave  him  a  text  book  on  that  subject.  He  sat  for 
an  hour,  holding  it  upside  down,  and  looking  at  it 
intently  with  a  profound  aspect.  Finally,  as  nothing 
came  out  of  this  proceeding,  he  came  up  to  me,  rather 
sheepishly,  and  said: 


2  I  6  DOCTOR  II UG UE  T. 

"  I  guess  I'll  take  one  of  dem  ere  spellin'-books. 
I  guess  dat's  what  I  wants." 

From  my  charts  on  the  wall,  I  first  gave  an  hour's 
lesson  on  the  alphabet.  I  told  the  story  of  its  origin, 
and  stated  that  for  ten  thousand  years  it  had  been  sub 
stantially  repeated,  from  nation  to  nation,  with  gradual 
changes  in  the  form  of  the  letters.  I  suggested  that  it 
came  first,  in  all  probability,  from  the  antediluvian 
world  of  Noah  and  the  Flood,  of  which  they  had  all 
heard  something.  Then  I  told  them  that  without  edu 
cation  they  could  not  be  a  free  people;  for  Freedom 
and  Ignorance  were  an  incongruous  pair,  who  bred  two 
twin  monsters,  Anarchy  and  Despotism,  and  one  of  these 
was  sure  to  devour  the  other.  An  ignorant  people 
were  only  fit  to  be  slaves,  and  sooner  or  later  they  were 
sure  to  be  slaves —  slaves  to  superstition,  slaves  to  the 
crafty,  slaves  to  the  powerful.  They  were  the  prey  to 
every  man  who  knew  more  than  they  did.  They  must 
either  learn  to  think  or  remain  beasts  of  burden 
through  all  generations.  And  they  could  not  think 
wisely  without  knowledge;  and  they  could  not  acquire 
knowledge  unless  through  the  alphabet :  by  this  means 
the  treasures  of  the  learning  of  all  time  were  open 
for  their  use.  Those  queer,  crooked  little  marks  lay 
at  the  base  of  civilization.  They  were  the  keys  of  gold 
that  would  unlock  the  store-houses  of  the  world's  ac 
cumulated  wealth.  I  quoted  Bacon  to  them,  of  whom, 
of  course,  they  had  never  heard,  that  "  a  man  is  simply 
what  he  knows."  And  I  could  not  help  but  think  that 
just  as  Francis  Bacon  stood,  unknown  to  them,  in  the 
background  of  history,  while  his  life-work  was  lifting 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  2\*J 

even  them  up  to  higher  levels;  so  there  might  be  great 
auxiliary  spirits,  instruments  of  God,  in  the  invisible 
world  surrounding  us,  who  were  constantly  at  work 
for  our  good,  of  whose  names  and  very  ex 
istence  we  knew  nothing.  I  told  them  that  the 
brain  of  man,  without  education,  was  a  mass  of  useless 
pulp  ;  nay,  worse  than  useless,  since  it  might  be 
turned  into  an  instrument  directed  to  the  destruction  of 
its  owner.  I  explained  to  them,  as  well  as  I  could,  the 
doctrine  of  Evolution  ;  how,  under  a  divine  impulse, 
the  higher  rose  out  of  the  lower  ;  the  greater  out  of 
the  less  ;  the  complex  out  of  the  simple  ;  the  noble  out 
of  the  ignoble  ;  the  pure  out  of  the  impure  ;  the  civil 
ized  man  out  of  the  savage  ;  the  Christian  out  of  the 
brute.  I  showed  them  that  Darwinism  plus  God  was 
the  true  philosophy  of  the  new  age.  I  told  them  that 
they  were  the  children  of  the  Most  High,  and,  poor 
and  despised  as  they  were,  the  inheritors  of  the  pur 
poses  of  God,  and  that  they  were  His  agents  to  lift  up 
themselves  and  others.  All  this,  of  course,  I  did  not 
put  in  these  words,  but  in  language  which  they  could 
understand,  with  many  illustrations  and  interesting 
facts.  Their  attention  was  rapt  and  intense.  To  be 
sure,  the  bow  of  their  minds  could  not  long  retain  its 
spring,  but  laughter,  or  some  touch  of  human  interest, 
relaxed  it,  and  the  next  instant  they  came  back  eagerly 
for  more  knowledge.  I  pointed  out  to  them  that  all 
the  dark  and  dreadful  sufferings  of  humanity,  during 
the  past  ages,  were  due  to  ignorant  and  untrained 
minds.  If  the  people  had  known  their  own  interests 
they  would  not  have  been  the  victims  of  kings  and 


2  I  8  D  O  C  TOR  HUG  UE  T. 

creeds,  to  die  by  millions  on  battlefields,  or  on  the 
scaffold,  or  at  the  stake.  My  auditors  were  themselves 
the  posterity  of  captives  made  in  wars  among  the  sav 
age  and  brutal  inhabitants  of  Africa,  and  sold  as  slaves 
to  the  whites.  Through  this  awful  gate-way  of  oppres 
sion  they  had  entered  into  liberty,  and,  if  they  were  true 
to  themselves,  through  this  they  would  enter  into  culture 
and  civilization.  I  told  them  that  they  must  hold  no  ani 
mosity  toward  the  whites  for  having  bought  their 
ancestors  from  their  African  captors;  they  had  been  re 
leased  thereby  from  savagery.  If  they  had  not  been 
thus  sold  they  would  have  been  killed  by  their  own 
countrymen,  according  to  their  cruel  customs.  Even 
slavery  was  an  improvement  on  murder.  I  quoted 
the  wise  saying  of  a  wise  man,  that  "  we  must  gather 
from  the  past  not  fire,  but  light."  We  could  not  hold 
the  by-gone  time  responsible  for  its  barbarisms.  The 
past  was  all  barbarism.  The  past  of  their  race  was 
dark  and  terrible  —  it  was  the  future  to  which  alone 
they  must  look. 

Then  I  gave  them  a  brief  lecture  on  astronomy. 
Knowledge  is  the  accumulation  of  interesting  facts. 
That  which  does  not  interest  and  benefit  humanity  is  not 
worth  knowing.  You  must  widen  the  brows  of  men  by 
forcing  new  ideas  into  their  brains.  Thought  was  the 
food  of  the  mind,  and  it  grows  with  what  it  feeds  on. 
It  longs  for  knowledge  as  the  eye  longs  for  light  —  it  is 
the  sustenance  of  the  soul. 

Instead  of  the  savage's  conception  of  the  stars  and 
sun  and  moon  —  as  lamps,  hung  in  the  sky  to  light  the 
steps  of  men  on  a  universe  of  earth  —  I  showed  that 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


219 


our  globe  was  a  mere  speck  of  matter  in  a  boundless 
creation;  that  every  new  accession  of  knowledge  in 
creased  our  conception  of  the  magnitude  of  the  uni 
verse.  From  the  perception,  by  the  naked  eye,  of  a 
few  thousand  stars,  we  had  advanced,  by  the  aid  of 
science,  to  the  knowledge  of  a  hundred  million  suns, 
each  with  its  galaxy  of  planets,  like  our  own.  And 
now  the  application  of  photography  showed  that 
beside  these  suns,  made  manifest  by  the  telescope,  there 
were  thousands  of  millions  more.  Indeed,  the  immense 
thought  was  being  forced  upun  us  that  this  created 
universe  was  illimitable  —  indeed  an  universal  universe 
—  boundless  as  space  and  eternity. 

And  then  I  dwelt  upon  the  inexpressible  greatness 
of  the  Architect  of  all  this — that  mighty  Being  out  of 
the  operation  of  whose  Will  had  flowed  all  this  endless 
congregation  of  suns  and  populous  planets,  and  comets 
and  meteors;  and  all  the  teeming  life  of  this  earth,  the 
animals  and  plants,  visible  to  our  eyes;  and  that  other 
universe  of  being,  revealed  to  us  by  the  microscope, 
the  limits  of  whose  endless  variety  and  minuteness  we 
have  not  yet  reached,  and  probably  will  never  reach. 
And  then  I  referred  to  this  wonderful  Creator,  not  as 
a  king  on  a  throne,  with  a  crown  on  His  head,  but  as  a 
vast  omnipresent  Mind,  permeating  all  space  and  all 
matter;  unresting,  unending,  untiring;  to  whom  noth 
ing  is  small  and  nothing  great;  who  keeps  the  count 
of  the  motes  in  the  sunbeam,  and  remembers  every 
creature  that  lives,  or  ever  has  lived,  on  earth  or  in  the 
heavens.  And  I  said  to  them  that  so  vast,  so  wonderful, 
so  adorable  was  this  Being  that  He  alone  was  worthy 


22O  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

of  study  and  contemplation  by  the  thoughtful  mind; 
and  that  nature,  man  and  all  things  that  are  within  the 
universe  are  entitled  to  consideration  simply  because 
they  are  part  of  the  outflow  of  this  divine  power.  I 
said  to  them  that  God  was  invisible,  even  as  our  own 
minds  are  invisible;  that  he  had  no  shape,  even  as  our 
own  minds  were  without  shape;  that  he  Was  recognized 
by  his  works,  even  as  our  own  minds  are  known  to  one 
another  by  their  influence  on  matter.  That  he  who 
helped  and  made  free  the  mind  of  man  released  a  part 
of  God  from  the  trammels  and  thraldom  of  matter, 
and  gave  thought  spiritual  wings  upon  which  it  could 
traverse  the  universe. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  rapt  attention  of  my 
audience.  Many  of  my  words  they  did  not  under 
stand,  but  these  probably  were  more  potent  with  them 
than  those  which  they  did  understand,  for  the  imagi 
nation  came  into  play  and  invested  them  with  powers 
of  which  the  dictionary  knows  nothing. 

After  the  exercises  were  over  they  still  hung  around 
the  building  in  clusters,  reluctant  to  depart,  discussing 
whether  I  was  John  the  Baptist,  Moses,  Abraham  or 
the  angel  Gabriel.  They  were  all  agreed  I  was  not 
Sam  Johnsing,  the  chicken-thief — of  that  they  were 
certain. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

PREACHING   AND   TEACHING. 

"  Will  no  man  say,  Amen  ? 
Am  I  both  priest  and  clerk  ?" 

— Richard  II. ,  iv.  i. 

THE  barn  was  a  large  one,  but  it  would  not  begin 
to  hold  the  crowds  that  assembled  every  night  —  for 
my  fame  had  spread  far  and  wide.  One-half  the  audi 
ence  were  white  people.  They  were  given  front  seats 
by  the  deacons,  who  were  proud  to  have  them  present. 
I  ornamented  the  building  as  well  as  I  could.  I  cov 
ered  the  walls  with  bright  paper,  festooned  the  stage 
with  evergreens,  and  hung  up  pictures,  here  and  there, 
of  the  illustrious  men  who  had  labored  for  the  benefit 
of  the  human  race.  Back  of  the  stage  I  suspended 
geographical  maps  and  chronological  charts. 

I  still  pursued  the  system,  with  which  I  had  com 
menced,  of  mingling  instruction  with  entertainment.  I 
ransacked  my  memory  for  anecdotes  that  would  illus 
trate  my  lectures;  but  I  always  wound  up  by  some 
words  showing  their  duty  to  the  Creator,  and  to  each 
other,, as  a  Christian  people.  Each  night  I  took  up,  as 
a  subject,  a  country  or  nation,  and  gave  as  interesting 
an  account  as  I  could  of  its  history,  and  the  character 
and  customs  of  its  people;  with  extracts  from  the 
narratives  of  travelers,  of  striking  adventures  by  field 
and  flood.  I  had  gradually  collected  quite  a  library, 


222  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

which  I  kept  in  a  room  I  had  inclosed  at  one  end  of  the 
barn,  and  there  I  slept  and  studied  and  prepared  my 
addresses. 

Mary  and  Abigail  and  Colonel  Ruddiman  were  often 
present,  and  among  my  most  attentive  auditors.  A 
number  of  white  clergymen  began  to  drop  in.  The 
unthinking  multitude  came  to  scoff,  and  many  of  them 
remained  to  pray.  The  sympathy  of  the  respectable 
\vhite  people  was  altogether  with  me,  for  my  exhorta 
tions  in  behalf  of  cleanliness,  temperance  and  honesty 
were  having  a  visible  effect  upon  the  colored  popula 
tion.  The  contributions  flowed  in  freely  from  both 
blacks  and  whites. 

A  large  portion  of  the  whites  were  as  illiterate  as 
the  negroes,  and  the  avidity  of  both  for  learning  was 
astonishing.  I  held  every  day,  during  the  morning 
hours,  a  school  for  the  children,  at  which  they  were 
taught  to  read  and  write,  and  similar  instruction  was 
given  to  the  adults  every  night. 

I  was  almost  happy.  I  felt  that  I  was  doing  good 
—  more  good  than  I  had  ever  done  before  in  my  life 
time.  My  flock  loved  and  almost  worshiped  me.  I 
realized  what  a  grand  task  it  was  to  beautify  and  purify 
human  intellects;  to  lift  them  up  from  groveling 
thoughts  to  noble  aspirations;  to  cleanse  the  temples 
of  all  these  souls  from  ignorance  and  debasing  super 
stitions;  to  teach  them,  if  not  a  creed,  the  vital  essen 
tials  of  religion.  The  very  faces  of  the  children  began 
to  improve  in  consonance  with  the  molding  and 
development  of  their  minds.  I  was  elevating  two 
races.  I  was  doing  God's  work  on  earth. 


DOCTOR  HUG UE T.  22 $ 

But  all  this  did  not  pass  unnoticed  among  the  ruf- 
fianry  of  the  district.  I  heard  rumors  that  nightly  con 
sultations  were  held  on  the  subject  at  Mother  Bindell's 
hostelry,  and  that  indignation  shook  that  classic  temple 
of  white  aristocracy  to  its  very  foundations.  Even  the 
slatternly  wenches  were  outraged  at  this  attempt  to 
make  the  negroes  as  honest,  honorable  and  intelligent 
as  white  men;  and  Mother  Bindell,  while  she  said 
nothing,  snapped  her  mean  and  cruel  little  eyes,  and 
convulsively  clutched  with  her  withered  harpy  hands, 
conscious  —  as  a  white  woman  —  that  the  very  fabric 
of  society,  built  on  the  distinctions  of  race  and  color, 
was  being  overthrown  by  such  radical  and  anarchistic 
proceedings.  The  loudest  in  denouncing  me  \vas  the 
new  Doctor  Huguet.  He  hated  a  black  man  with  an 
intense  fervor.  He  had  special  reasons,  well  known  to 
himself,  for  hating  me ;  for  he  feared  that  the  power 
that  had  made  him  a  white  man  might  at  any  moment 
return  him  to  his  original  condition.  If  I  was  only 
dead,  that  danger  would  cease;  and  so  he  roared  and 
swore,  louder  than  all  the  rest,  that  the  negro  must  be 
kept  in  his  proper  place  —  that  is,  the  male  negro; 
and  that  they  must  go  out  and  burn  down  my 
school-house,  and  make  an  end  of  me.  Nothing 
else  would  satisfy  their  outraged  Caucasian  dignity. 
And  so  they  all  fumed  and  stormed  and  howled  to 
gether.  But  they  attempted  nothing,  for  they  well 
knew  that  I  had  made  no  utterance  to  provoke  race 
antagonisms,  and  that  the  sentiment  of  all  the  respect 
able  white  people,  who  constituted  three-fourths  of 
the  entire  population,  sustained  me  in  my  work,  by 


224 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


voice  and  purse.  But  it  distressed  them,  in  the  midst 
of  their  drunken  orgies,  to  think  that  some  one  was  at 
work  trying  to  make  the  negroes  around  them  better 
men,  better  citizens  and  better  Christians.  It  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  a  large  part  of  mankind  believe 
in  a  personal  devil,  since  there  is  so  much  malignity 
and  hatred  of  all  goodness  in  a  considerable  share  of 
the  population  of  the  world.  The  doctrine  of  demo 
niacal  possession,  despite  the  doctors,  would  seem  to 
have  some  ground  and  foundation  of  experience  and 
reason  to  stand  upon.  We  so  often  see  evil  done 
which  neither  profits  the  doer  nor  any  one  else,  that 
one  is  constrained  to  look  for  its  source  in  extra-mun 
dane  influences,  and  to  see  in  the  unreasonable  and 
unprofitable  wickedness  of  man  the  impish  instincts  of 
some  grinning  demon  behind  the  scenes. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE    CLOUDS    GATHERING. 

"  Life  is  a  business  —  not  good  cheer  ; 

Ever  in  wars. 
The  sun  still  shineth  there  or  here, 

Whereas  the  stars 
Watch  an  advantage  to  appear." 

—  George  Herbert. 

IT  seemed  to  me  that  every  day  the  faces  of  Mary  and 
the  Colonel  were  more  and  more  gloomy.  The 
Colonel  was  constantly  lost  in  thought,  as  if  brooding 
over  some  great  trouble. 

One  afternoon  I  was  sitting  reading  in  my  little 
room,  in  the  barn,  when  Mary  and  Abigail  entered. 
After  some  conversation,  I  said  to  Mary  : 

"  I  observe  that  your  father  looks  troubled  and  dis 
tressed.  Is  it  about  money  matters  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  she  replied.  "  It  is  about  our  home.  We 
are  likely  to  lose  it  !  " 

"  Kow  so  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  That  miserable  creature,  Buryhill,"  she  replied, 
"  has  been  buying  up  the  mortgages,  judgments  and 
tax-titles  against  the  place.  Many  of  them  he  pur 
chased,  we  learn,  at  a  large  discount,  the  tax-titles  at 
about  half  their  face  value,  and  so  he  holds  claims 
against  the  place  that  amount  to  about  seven  thou 
sand  dollars.  The  plantation  is  worth  much  more  than 
that,  and  father  has,  been  trying  to  group  all  his  in- 


226  DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 

debtedness  together,  in  one  mortgage,  and  get  out  of 
Buryhill's  clutches.      But  some  one  has  gone  to  every 

banker   and   money-lender  in  C (father  thinks  it 

was  Buryhill  or  his  agents),  and  discredited  father,  so 
that  he  cannot  find  any  one  who  will  advance  him  the 
money  needed.  In  the  meantime  Buryhill  is  harassing 
father  with  visits  and  threatening  letters,  until  he  is 
almost  distracted.  Recently  Buryhill  has  made  a  new 
proposition.  He  says  that  he  has  found  out,  by- 
chance,  that  father  is  heir  to  a  claim  against  certain 
real  estate,  not  here,  but  outside  of  South  Carolina, — 
but  in  what  place  he  will  not  tell, — which  is  worth 
nothing  to  father,  because  it  would  require  long  and 
expensive  litigation  to  enforce  it;  but  that  he,  Buryhill, 
being  a  lawyer,  could  take  it  and  make  something  out 
of  it,  and  that  he  will  give  father  $2,000  credit  for  a 
quit-claim  deed  of  his  title,  and  take  a  mortgage  on 
the  plantation  for  $5,000,  to  be  paid  in  two  years. 
Father  is  so  hard  pressed  that  he  is  disposed  to  accept 
this  offer;  it  would  give  him  breathing-space  to  look 
around  and  see  what  he  could  do.  But  I  have  objected 
to  his  entering  into  such  a  contract,  on  the  ground 
that  Buryhill  is  a  dishonest  knave,  and  that  we  have 
nothing  but  his  word  as  to  the  value  of  the  property 
which  he  asks  father  to  convey  to  him.  It  may  be 
worth  millions.  It  may  be  some  estate  in  England.  I 
have  read  of  many  such  cases.  I  have  argued  that,  if 
father  is  to  go  into  any  such  trade,  he  should  know  be 
forehand  just  what  he  is  to  trade  away.  But  father  is 
so  driven  to  desperation,  by  his  fears  of  seeing  us  all 
turned  out  of  doors,  that  my  wor.ds  do  not  seem  to 


DOCTOR  I1UGUET. 


227 


have  much  weight  with  him,  and  I  fear  that  he  will  do 
what  Buryhill  desires." 

"  Your  views  of  the  matter,"  I  said,  "  are  correct  and 
wise.  Tell  your  father  to  do  nothing  until  he  sees  me 
and  talks  it  over  with  me;  and  ask  him  whether  he 
cannot  call  here  to-morrow  afternoon,  and  bring  with 
him  copies  of  all  his  correspondence  with  Buryhill, 
and  any  marriage-certificates,  deeds,  wills,  letters,  or 
other  papers  he  may  have  relating  to  his  ancestors, 
especially  to  the  collateral  branches.  We  must  find 
out  where  that  property  is,  and  what  is  its  value.  You 
may  be  very  sure  that  it  is  worth  many  times  what  that 
rapacious  shark  offers  for  it.  In  the  meantime  tell 
your  father  to  say  nothing  about  his  proposed  confer 
ence  with  me.  Buryhill  is  surrounding  him  with  a  net 
work  of  wires,  and  he  must  not  know  what  your  father 
is  doing  or  intends  to  do." 

Mary's  face  brightened. 

"  I  am  so  glad,"  she  said,  "  that  you  are  going  to 
help  us.  That  is  a  good  idea  to  find  out  all  we  can 
about  our  ancestors.  There  is  an  old  chest  in  the 
library,  full  of  documents,  many  of  them  yellow  with 
age.  I  shall  search  them  over  to-night,  and  we  will 
bring  with  us  to-morrow  any  that  seem  of  value.  I 
begin  to  see  a  ray  of  hope  through  the  thick  darkness 
that  surrounds  us.  Poor  father  has  been  so  distressed 
in  mind  that  he  has  been  drinking  more  wine  of  late, 
at  table,  than  is  usual  with  him;  and  I  think  Buryhill 
has  used  that  fact  to  injure  his  credit  with  the  money 
lenders.  I  do  not  believe  that  he  could  stand  up  long 
against  such  sordid  and  debasing  troubles.  I  think  he 


228  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

would  rather  face  loaded  cannon  than  the  tricks  of  such 
wretches  as  Buryhill." 

The  next  day  the  Colonel  and  Mary  drove  over  to 
the  barn.  I  brought  them  into  my  room  and  locked 
the  outside  doors,  so  that  we  should  not  be  interrupted  ; 
and  we  had  a  lengthy  conference  upon  the  whole  mat 
ter.  Mary  had  brought  with  her  a  satchel,  full  of 
papers,  and  I  carefully  examined  them  all :  old  wills, 
deeds,  letters,  etc.  But  a  diligent  search  revealed 
nothing  that  would  throw  any  light  upon  the  subject  of 
our  inquiry.  The  direct  line  of  the  Colonel's  ancestors, 
the  Ruddimans,  had  resided,  for  a  century  past,  in 
South  Carolina,  but  the  collateral  progenitors,  inter 
marrying  with  them,  had  lived  in  different  States  : 
North  Carolina,  Virginia,  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania. 
The  original  stock  came  from  Devonshire,  England,  at 
the  time  of  the  early  settlement  of  Virginia  ;  but  there 
was  nothing  to  show  anything  about  their  English 
relatives. 

I  was  discouraged.  It  would  be  an  endless  task  to 
search  the  records  of  half-a-dozen  States  ;  and  in  the 
meantime  the  mortgages  would  be  foreclosed  and  the 
plantation  lost.  The  Colonel  and  Mary  both  saw,  by 
my  manner,  that  I  had  lost  hope,  and  their  own  coun 
tenance  became  very  grave  and  sad. 

What  could  we  do  ?  We  could  not  by  any  legal 
process  compel  that  cormorant,  Buryhill,  to  disclose 
what  he  knew.  To  be  sure,  violence  might  force  it  out 
of  him.  If  he  saw  death  staring  him  in  the  face  he 
might  tell  his  secret  to  save  his  life.  But  this  was  a 
remedy  as  desperate  as  the  disease,  and  only  to  be 


DOCTOR  HUGUET,  22Q 

thought  of  in  the  last  extremity.  I  mentioned  the 
idea,  however,  to  the  Colonel,  and  his  eyes  flashed  with 
a  look  that  would  have  made  Mr.  Buryhill  very  uncom 
fortable  if  he  had  seen  it  and  understood  what  it 
meant.  For  a  strong,  honest  man,  caught  in  the 
meshes  of  a  rogue,  feels  very  little  compunction  about 
laying  his  giant  paw  on  the  pigmy  that  has  entrapped 
him,  and  crushing  the  life  out  of  his  miserable  anatomy. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  if  we  had  Buryhill  in  the  woods, 
with  a  rope  around  his  neck,  and  a  few  stout  arms 
ready  to  haul  him  up,  I  think,  to  save  his  own  life,  he 
would  relinquish  his  secret,  and  with  it  his  little  game 
of  ruining  me.  Like  all  scoundrels,  he  is  an  arrant 
coward.  Yes,  I  like  that  idea!" 

"  Well,  well,"  I  said,  "  it  is  time  enough  to  think  of 
that  hereafter.  But  you  have  not  yet  shown  me  your 
correspondance  with  him." 

The  Colonel,  like  all  such  free-hearted,  unsuspicious 
men,  had  retained  no  copies  of  his  own  letters  to  Bury 
hill,  but  fortunately  he  had  saved  the  communications 
he  had  received  from  him,  and  he  handed  them  over  to 
me.  There  were  a  score  of  them. 

I  arranged  them  in  chronological  order  and  then  pro 
ceeded  to  read  them  carefully. 

It  was  curious  to  observe  the  change  in  Buryhill's 
tone;  how  the  courtesy  of  the  earlier  letters  graduated 
into  peremptoriness  and  insolence  as  he  felt  more  and 
more  sure  of  his  victim. 

Then  there  came  another  change.  I  said  to  the 
Colonel: 

"  This  rascal  did  not  know  about  the  outside  property 


I 

230  DOCTOR  HUGUET, 

when  he  commenced  his  correspondence  with  you.  I 
can  put  my  finger  upon  the  point  of  time  when  he  first 
heard  of  it.  The  sudden  change  in  manner  shows 
increased  respect,  and  that  argues  that  the  estate  in 
question  is  large,  very  large.  Here  he  writes  you  a 
most  friendly  letter  intimating  that  the  matter  can 
probably  be  arranged  to  your  entire  satisfaction. 
There  is  a  break  of  three  or  four  days.  During  that 
time  the  thought  has  occurred  to  his  scheming  brain 
that  you  knew  nothing  of  this  inheritance,  and  that  he 
might  take  advantage  of  your  ignorance  and  careless 
ness  to  get  it  away  from  you;  and  then  came  the  letter 
offering  to  give  you  a  credit  of  $2,000  on  your  indebt 
edness,  for  a  quit-claim  of  the  property.  He  thought 
you  could  not  possibly  extricate  yourself  in  two 
years,  in  these  dull  times,  from  the  $5,000  mortgage, 
and  thus  he  would  secure  your  plantation  and  your 
inheritance  besides." 

"  Oh!  the  villain,"  cried  the  Colonel,  his  face  red 
with  rage;  "  and  this  is  the  man  I  took  into  my  house 
and  treated  like  a  gentleman!  He  sat  at  my  table  and 
partook  of  my  hospitality,  and  was  plotting,  at  that 
very  moment, -how  he  could  destroy  me  —  how  he 
could  send  me  to  the  poor-house  —  me,  who  had  never 
wronged  or  injured  him.  Why,  the  highwayman  who 
claps  a  pistol  to  your  head  and  takes  your  purse  is  a 
gentleman  compared  with  such  a  scoundrel.  The 
robber  gives  you  a  chance  to  shoot  him  down;  he  offers 
a  life  for  a  life;  and  he  takes  but  a  small  contribution 
out  of  your  abundance.  But  this  modern  breed  of 
highwaymen  stick  their  guns  over  the  battlements  of 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


231 


law,  order  and  society,  and,  in  perfect  safety,  strip  you 
of  everything  you  have  in  the  world,  and  smile  upon 
you  in  the  most  friendly  fashion,  while  they  rob  you. 
Oh!  they  are  monsters!  They  should  be  hunted  down 
and  murdered, as  we  hunt  and  kill  wolves  and  panthers." 

"  Well,  Colonel,"  I  replied,  "  these  wretches  are  the 
result  of  our  modern  civilization.  There  is  this  great 
difference  between  villainy  inside  the  law  and  villainy 
outside  the  law:  the  fellows  in  the  prisons  are  the 
stupid  rascals  who,  in  their  insatiable  selfishness,  did 
not  stop  to  consider  the  limitations  and  technicalities 
of  the  statutes;  but  a  scoundrel,//?/^  a  knowledge  of  the 
law,  becomes  a  gentleman  and  a  statesman.  Buryhill 
will  go  to  Congress  yet;  while  his  victims  will  be 
tramping  around  the  land,  begging  for  bread  at  kitchen 
doors." 

The  Colonel  grew  pale  and  shuddered. 

"  But  we  must  match  cunning  with  cunning,"  I 
added.  "  Modern  society  has  no  sympathy  with  hon 
esty  that  permits  itself  to  be  outwitted  by  craft.  The 
knavish,  plundering  non-producer  is  respectable;  the 
worthy,  ruined  producer  is  contemptible.  That  is  the 
judgment  of  the  world." 

"  But  what  is  this  ?  "  I  exclaimed. 

They  both  rose  and  stood  over  me.  I  held  in  my 
hand  one  of  the  last  letters  written  by  Buryhill  to  the 
Colonel.  It  had  been  copied  by  him  in  a  letter-press, 
and  at  the  same  time  another  letter  had  been  copied 
with  it,  and,  by  accident,  no  card-board  had  been 
placed  between  the  two  sheets  of  tissue  paper,  and 
thus  the  writing  of  the  second  letter  had  passed  through 


2  ;  o  DOCTOR  HUG UE T. 

\J  *" 

both  sheets  of  damp  tissue-paper,  and  had  recorded 
itself,  faintly,  upon  the  face  of  the  letter  addressed  to 
the  Colonel;  but  the  writing  was  inverted,  running 
from  right  to  left  instead  of  from  left  to  right. 

"  In  dealing  with  such  a  knave  as  Buryhill,"  I  said, 
"  we  must  not  lose  a  single  point." 

I  could  make  out  the  words  "  Baltimore,  Md.,"  in 
the  inverted  writing,  reading  backward.  We  all  tried 
to  decipher  it.  Then  Mary,  with  the  quick  wit  of  a 
woman,  jumped  up  and  took  a  mirror  from  the  wall, 
and  held  it  before  me,  and  I,  holding  the  letter  in 
front  of  the  mirror,  distinctly  read  in  the  glass  the  re 
versed  writing,  as  follows: 

C ,  S.  C.,  September  I2th,  1889. 

Mess.   Van  Hoesen  and  Bigclo'iV,  Attorneys  at  Law,  Baltimore,  I\LI. 

GENTLEMEN:  In  answer  to  your  valued  favor  of  the  9th  inst.  I  would 
state  that  your  letter  of  the  2nd  inst.,  to  Colonel  Ruddiman,  in  reference 
to  the  expired  lease  of  property  in  your  city,  sent  to  my  care,  was  duly 
delivered  to  him;  and  he  begs  me  to  say  that  business  engagements  have 
delayed  his  reply,  and  that  he  hopes  to  soon  send  a  legal  representative  to 
I?altimore  to  see  you  and  arrange  for  the  delivery  of  the  estate.  In  the 
meantime,  as  the  Colonel  is  likely  to  be  absent  from  home  for  some  days, 
he  requests  that  any  letters  you  may  send  him  shall  be  sent,  as  heretofore, 
under  cover  to  this  office. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

CHARLES  A.  BURYIIII.L. 

"  There  !  "  I  said,  "  that  tells  the  whole  story  !  The 
man  is  a  greater  villain  than  even  I  thought  him. 
He  received  a  letter  from  that  law  firm  in  Baltimore, 
addressed  to  you,  Colonel,  under  cover  to  him;  he 
opened  it  and  read  it;  at  once  (compare  the  dates),  he 
wrote  you  that  friendly  letter,  for  he  saw  that  you 


DOC  TOR  HUG  UET.  2  1  3 

\J  \J 

would  soon  be  beyond  his  power.  Then  he  began  his 
game  to  swindle  you.  If  you  had  executed  the  quit 
claim  deed,  as  he  proposed,  he  would  have  gone  di 
rectly  to  Baltimore,  as  the  owner  of  the  property;  for 
you  may  be  sure  that,  immediately  after  receiving  that 
first  letter,  he  thoroughly  informed  himself  as  to  the 
precise  value  of  it.  But  let  me  congratulate  you, 
Colonel,"  I  said,  shaking  his  hand;  "  that  tell-tale  rec 
ord,  made  by  the  letter-press,  has  saved  you;  for,  be 
yond  doubt,  the  Baltimore  property  will  more  than 
pay  your  debts  and  leave  you  your  plantation  free." 

Mary's  face  shone  with  delight,  and  she  thanked  me 
earnestly  for  the  great  service  I  had  rendered  them. 
The  Colonel  was  dazed  with  astonishment.  The  relief 
caused  by  the  good  news  contended  in  his  honest  mind 
with  indignation  at  the  audacious  villainy  of  Buryhill. 
The  latter  paralyzed  the  worthy  man.  He  could  not 
comprehend  it.  To  steal  his  letter  and  then  lay  such 
a  cunning  trap  for  him!  He  rose  and  strode  up  and 
down  the  room,  muttering  imprecations,  while  every 
now  and  then  his  hand  stole  involuntarily  to  his  hip- 
pocket,  as  if  searching  for  a  weapon.  If  Buryhill  had 
entered  at  that  time  the  Colonel  would  have  settled 
their  differences  by  a  process  not  known  in  the  whole 
cunning  catalogue  of  writs  and  proceedings  enumerated 
in  the  statute  books;  —  a  process  from  which  there 
would  have  been  no  writ  of  error,  or  certiorari,  or  ap 
peal,  except  to  the  high  court  of  heaven.  Buryhill 
would  have  left  his  rat-hoard  of  accumulated  stealings 
very  suddenly,  and  gone  to  mingle  his  villainy  with  the 
demon  natures  of  the  invisible  world. 


234 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


We  were  quiet  for  a  time,  thinking,  and  then  Mary 
broke  the  silence. 

"  What  had  we  better  do?"  she  asked. 

"  I  will  go  and  see  that  Baltimore  law  firm,"  said  the 
Colonel. 

"  No,  no,"  I  replied;  "  you  don't  know  them,  and 
you  don't  know  the  situation  of  the  property.  They 
may  be  honorable  men, —  tor  there  are  lawyers  who  arc 
an  honor  to  our  common  human  nature, —  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  may  be  as  big  rogues  as  Buryhill,  and 
to  approach  them  without  a  full  knowledge  of  what 
the  property  is,  and  the  legal  condition  of  your  claim, 
would  be  dangerous:  you  might  fall  into  the  hands  of 
swindlers. " 

"  What  shall  I  do,  then?"  asked  the  Colonel. 

"  I  think,"  I  replied,  "  that  it  would  be  better  for  me 
to  go  to  Baltimore.  I  will  find  out  a  trusty  lawyer  to 
help  me.  I  will  examine  the  records  in  the  offices 
where  deeds  and  contracts  are  recorded.  I  have  an 
idea  that  the  property  was  embraced  in  one  of  those 
ninety-nine-year  leases,  a  good  many  of  which  were 
given  a  century  ago.  Buryhill's  letter  says  that  it  is  a 
'  lease,'  and  that  it  has  '  expired.'  You  have  given  no 
lease  of  property  in  Baltimore,  during  your  lifetime; 
nor  could  your  father  or  mother  have  done  so  without 
your  having  heard  something  about  it.  But  your 
mother's  grandfather,  I  see  by  these  papers,  lived  in 
Baltimore  about  a  hundred  years  ago.  His  name  was 
Ephraim  Woodside.  We  must  search  the  records  for 
deeds  to,  or  leases  from,  Ephraim  Woodside,  given 
about  a  century  since.  When  we  have  got  the  date  of 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


235 


the  lease,  and  the  description  of  the  property,  it  will 
not  be  difficult  to  find  out  its  value.  As  I  appear  to 
be  a  negro,  I  can  move  about  and  make  inquiries  of 
other  negroes  without  exciting  suspicion." 

"  What  will  I  do  with  Buryhill,  in  the  meantime  ?" 
asked  the  Colonel. 

"  I  will  write  you  a  letter,"  I  said,  "  which  you  can 
copy  and  send  to  him,  saying  that  you  have  a  chance 
to  secure  money  enough  to  pay  off  your  debts,  and 
asking  ten  days'  delay,  and  intimating  that,  if  you  can 
not  borrow  the  money  in  that  time,  you  will  probably 
accede  to  his  terms.  This  will  keep  him  quiet  until  I 
have  time  to  report  the  results  of  my  investigations  at 
Baltimore;  for  he  will  feel  sure  that,  with  the  skill  he 
will  employ  to  thwart  you,  you  will  not  be  able  to  effect 
such  a  loan  as  you  seek.  He  will  have  you  shadowed; 
so  do  not  come  here.  I  will  give  out  that  I  am  sick, 
and  will  close  up  the  school  for  a  few  days,  and  have 
Emeline  prevent  any  one  from  entering  here  but  her 
self.  I  will  take  with  me  all  the  deeds,  wills,  marriage- 
certificatcs,  etc.,  that  you  have  brought  with  you,  and 
that  may  be  necessary  to  prove  your  claim.  If  every 
thing  is  right  you  can  borrow  money  enough  in  Balti 
more  to  pay  off  all  you  owe  to  Buryhill,  and  get  out  of 
his  satanic  and  poisonous  clutches. " 

"  Yes,"  replied  the  Colonel,  his  face  shining  with  re 
newed  hope  and  happiness;  "  and  then  I  will  call  the 
d d  scoundrel  out  and  shoot  him." 

"  No,  no,"  I  said  ;  "  I  would  not  pollute  my  hands 
with  his  black  blood.  Neither  would  he  fight.  You 
would  have  to  shoot  him  down  like  a  wild  beast,  in  cold 


236  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

blood.  Better  expose  the  wretch  and  drive  him  out  of 
the  country." 

We  talked  very  fully  over  all  the  details  of  my  expe 
dition,  and  it  was  agreed  that  I  should  start  the  next 
morning  for  Baltimore. 

I  was  happy  —  happy  to  find  that  at  last,  despite  my 
black  skin,  my  active  brain  could  work  effectively,  and 
I  could  achieve  something.  The  sense  of  power  re 
turned  to  me,  and  I  found  myself  singing,  for  the  first 
time  since  the  night  of  my  dreadful  transformation. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

DETECTIVE  WORK. 

"  Do  this  suddenly, 
And  let  not  search  and  inquisition  quail. " 

— As  You  Like  It,  it.  2. 

I  TOOK  a  seat  in  the  car,  modestly —  near  the  door. 
I  was  well  dressed.  I  had  my  hair  cut  short ;  I 
wore  a  pair  of  large,  gold-rimmed  spectacles,  not  to 
aid  my  sight,  but  to  increase  the  respectability  of  my 
appearance.  I  even  fancied  that  the  expression  of  my 
face  had  improved  and  softened,  for  the  body  molds 
itself  to  the  spirit,  even  as  the  shell  of  the  nautilus 
adapts  itself  to  every  convolution  of  the  body  of  the 
little  creature  within  it.  High  thought  and  noble  en 
deavor  had  banished  from  eyes  and  mouth  the  crafty, 
cruel  and  brutal  expression  which  had  so  shocked  me 
the  first  time  I  looked  into  Sam  Johnsing's  broken 
looking-glass. 

I  was  amused  to  notice  how  the  white  passengers 
avoided  me  as  they  hastened  into  the  car.  I  had  the 
seat  all  to  myself.  No  one  crowded  me.  Ladies  sat 
themselves  down  on  the  seat  behind  or  before  mine, 
and  then,  perceiving  me,  rose  quickly,  with  uplifted 
noses,  and  hurried  off  to  some  other  part  of  the  car. 
I  did  not  grow  angry  —  the  ordeals  I  had  passed 
through  had  cured  me  of  all  that  sort  of  feeling.  I 
had  braced  myself  up  to  endure. 


238  DOCTOR  UUGUET. 

As  the  train  moved  on  I  indulged  in  many  sad  and 
some  amusing  reflections.  Life  is  a  wonderful  pan 
orama,  and  far  surpasses  in  interest,  to  the  appreciative 
spirit,  anything  that  can  be  shown  on  the  mimic  stage. 
As  we  grow  older  the  brain,  when  not  poisoned  by  the 
use  of  intrusive  and  destructive  stimulants  and  nar 
cotics,  acquires  all  the  sensitiveness  of  a  photographic 
plate,  and  receives  impressions  of  character  of  niarvel- 
ous  distinctness  and  variety  of  color.  Youth  is  the 
period  of  ferment,  heat  and  passion,  and  the  intellect 
ual  apparatus  does  not  reach  its  perfect  work  until 
middle  life.  The  receptivity  and  fecundity  of  the  brain 
are  then  at  their  best.  There  is  no  higher  material 
study  than  the  perfection  of  the  conditions  of  the 
mind.  It  is  such  a  subtle  potency  that  it  is  a  grave 
crime  to  injuriously  affect  it,  by  putting  into  the  mouth 
anything  that  will  lessen  its  harmonious  and  exquisite 
action.  The  mind  responds,  like  a  delicately  con 
structed  instrument,  to  every  influence  acting  upon  the 
body;  and  the  body  must  be  neither  underfed  nor 
clogged  with  indulgence,  if  we  would  have  the  god 
like  harp  respond  to  the  finest  touches  of  the  angels  of 
the  soul. 

It  is  hard  to  tell,  I  thought,  how  far  a  man  is  fortu 
nate  or  unfortunate  in  his  generation.  In  many  respects 
this  is  the  greatest  age  this  world  has  ever  known. 
Never  before  did  humanity  possess  such  vast  powers 
over  nature;  never  before  was  there  so  much  happiness 
on  earth;  never  before  did  such  huge  populations  dwell 
in  such  a  golden  atmosphere  of  peace  and  enlighten 
ment.  And  yet  all  these  things  may  be  accompanied 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


239 


by  such  a  denial  of  spiritual  life;  by  such  shallow,  dust- 
grubbing  materialism;  by  such  a  dead-rot  of  servility 
and  heartlessness  and  wealth-grabbing  and  Mammon- 
worship,  that  the  fair  form  of  Progress  becomes 
rotten  and  worm-eaten  ;  and  that  which  we  mistake 
for  the  pulsations  of  breathing  life  may  be  but  the 
convulsive  struggles  of  the  swarming  vermin  beneath 
the  infected  skin.  In  the  age  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
there  were  but  live  million  people  who  spoke  the 
English  tongue;  now  there  are,  in  all  the  world,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  millions;  but  what  one  name,  of 
this  generation,  have  we  to  setup  against  the  immortal 
galaxy  that  adorned  that  wonderful  era  ?  Not  one  ! 
We  erect  great  fortunes;  but  we  do  not  build  great 
men. 

"  Ye  have  the  Pyrrhic  dance  as  yet  — 

Where  is  the  Pyrrhic  phalanx  gone  ? 
Of  two  such  lessons,  why  forget 
The  nobler  and  the  manlier  one  ?  " 

The  individual  lessens  as  the  race  greatens;  inde 
pendent  thought  becomes  an  offense,  and  strength  of 
character  a  crime.  Society  is  a  great  shop,  where  the 
millions  are  turned  out  after  the  same  pattern  —  like 
ready-made  clothing.  As  Pope  says,  in  the  Dunciad: 

"  With  the  same  cement,  ever  sure  to  bind, 
We  bring  to  one  dead  level  every  mind; 
Then  take  him  to  develop,  if  you  can, 
And  hew  the  block  off  and  get  out  the  man. " 

It  is  the  age  of  pointless  uniformity  and  immensely 
prosperous  dullness.  And  all  this  prosperity  is  but 
dust  blown  in  the  eyes  of  Apollo.  It  hides  the  face  of 


240  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

heaven  and  darkens  the  visage  of  God;  when,  indeed, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  universe  but  God,  and  nothing 
worth  thinking  of  in  all  this  world  but  God;  for  prayer 
is  only  the  contemplation  of  God,  on  the  bent  knees  of 
the  soul. 

"  In  vain,  in  vain,  the  all-composing  hour 
Resistless  falls!  the  Muse  obeys  the  power. 
She  comes  !  she  comes !     The  sable  throne  behold 
Of  night  primeval,  and  of  Chaos  old! 
Before  her,  fancy's  gilded  clouds  decay, 
And  all  its  varying  rainbows  die  away. 
Wit  shoots  in  vain  his  momentary  fires, 
The  meteor  drops,  and  in  a  flash  expires. 
As,  one  by  one,  at  dread  Medea's  strain, 
The  sickening  stars  fade  off  the  ethereal  plain,- 
As  Argus'  eyes,  by  Hermes'  wand  oppressed, 
Closed  one  by  one  to  everlasting  rest: 
Thus  at  the  fell  approach,  and  secret  might, 
Art  after  art  goes  out,  and  all  is  night !     .     .     . 
Philosophy,  that  leaned  on  heaven  before, 
Shrinks  to  her  second-cause,  and  is  no  more. 
Religion,  blushing,  veils  her  sacred  fires, 
And,  unawares,  morality  expires. 
Nor  public  flame,  nor  private,  dares  to  shine; 
Nor  human  spark  is  left,  nor  glimpse  divine ! 
Lo,  thy  dread  empire,  Chaos !  is  restored; 
Light  dies  before  thy  uncreating  word; 
Thy  hand,  great  Anarch  !  lets  the  curtain  fall, 
And  universal  darkness  buries  all." 

It  is  a  pitiable  spectacle:  —  the  soul  of  man  drowned 
in  the  splendors  of  the  flesh;  a  nation  perishing  from 
too  much  prosperity;  the  dead,  flat  waste  of  ages  that 
make  no  history.  Genius  lights,  with  its  crooked  talons, 
upon  the  mountain  peaks  of  world-shaking  convulsions. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  24! 

It  finds  no  resting-place  upon  the  desolate  plains  of  a 
money-worshiping,  characterless,  materialistic  age. 

And  then  my  thoughts  drifted  to  the  people  about 
me,  and  I  could  not  help  but  think  that  each  one  dwelt  in 
his  or  her  own  world  of  reflections,  filled  with  its  own 
memories  and  thoughts, —  of  men  and  women,  and 
deeds  and  things, —  each  one  totally  differing  from  his 
neighbor.  And  it  occurred  to  me,  that  if  the  aura  of 
every  man's  thoughts  was  made  visible,  what  a  sight  it 
would  be, — ^extending  far  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of 
the  railroad  car,  overlapping  each  other,  and  reaching, 
in  some  instances,  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Each  indi 
vidual  carries  his  world  of  thoughts  around  him  like  a 
great  atmosphere.  In  one  case  it  is  pure  and  bright  and 
tenanted  by  angels;  in  another  it  is  dark  and  gloomy, 
thick  with  scowling  crimes  and  threatening  demons. 
The  raiment  of  these  people  touched  as  they  sat  to 
gether  ;  they  exchanged  little  civilities  of  speech ; 
and  yet  heaven  and  hell  were  not  farther  apart  than 
the  realms  in  which  their  souls  dwelt. 

And  then  I  pondered  what  I  should  do  when  I 
readied  Baltimore.  I  had  heard,  from  some  of  the 
members  of  my  flock,  of  a  remarkable  negro  woman,  in 
that  city,  by  the  name  of  Charity  Jones.  She  was  a 
singular  evidence  of  the  intellectual  power  possible  in  the 
race.  She  was  a  full-blooded  negro,  perfectly  illiter 
ate,  but  with  the  most  marvelous  intelligence  and 
memory.  She  knew  every  black  man  and  woman  in 
Baltimore,  their  character,  history  and  pedigree  for  gen 
erations  past.  She  was  almost  equally  familiar  with 

16 


242 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


the  white  people.  She  was  consulted  regularly  by 
both  races  ;  and  her  wisdom  and  honesty  were  as 
extraordinary  as  her  memory.  I  made  up  my  mind  I 
would  go  and  see  her,  and  get  her  to  furnish  me  with 
the  name  of  some  bright  young  lawyer  who  would  help 
me  in  the  search  of  the  old  records  of  Baltimore. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

CHARITY   JONES. 

"  What  complexion  is  she  of  ? 
Swart,  like  my  shoe." 

—  Comedy  of  Errors,  Hi.  2. 

I  FOUND  her  in  her  cleanly  little  cabin,  overgrown 
with  vines  —  a  stout,  broad-headed,  full-browed, 
elderly  negro  woman,  with  a  quiet,  settled  manner. 

I  told  her  I  desired  to  consult  with  her,  and  handed 
her  a  silver  dollar. 

She  looked  at  me  with  penetrating  eyes,  and  said  : 

"You  are  Doctor    Huguet." 

I  was  astounded. 

"  How  do  you  know  that  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Because,"  she  replied,  "  I  have  heard  all  about  you; 
and  you  have  a  white  man's  manner  and  a  white  man's 
speech  in  the  mouth  of  a  negro;  and  you  do  not  belong 
here." 

"  How  do  you  know  that  ?  " 

"  Because  I  know  every  negro  in  Baltimore,  and  for 
many  miles  around  it." 

"  Well,"  I  said,  "  you  are  right.  I  am  Doctor 
Huguet.  What  did  you  hear  about  me  ? 

"  Everything;  such  strange  news  travels  fast." 

"  They  tell  me,"  I  said,  "  that  you  are  honest.  I 
want  you  to  help  me  to  save  a  good,  true  man,  who  is 
oppressed  by  a  rascal." 

243 


244 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


She  handed  me  back  the  dollar,  and  said: 

"  I  do  not  need  money  for  that." 

But  I  pressed  it  upon  her  again. 

"  Tell  me,"  I  said,  "  the  name  of  a  bright,  young, 
white  lawyer,  honest  and  honorable,  who  is  familiar 
with  the  offices  of  the  courts." 

"  What  do  you  want  him  for  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Simply  to  help  me  hunt  up  some  records." 

She  placed  her  finger  to  her  forehead,  and  sat  a  few 
moments  silent.  She  seemed  to  be  weighing  different 
men  in  the  balance  of  her  judgment.  At  last  she 
spoke. 

"  The  man  who  would  suit  you  is  young  Mr.  Abel 

Harrison,  of  No.  Lexington  Street.  Tell  him  I 

sent  you  to  him.  Be  frank  with  him,  for  he  is  trust 
worthy.  " 

I  was  surprised  to  note  the  excellent  language  she 
used.  It  came,  I  suppose,  from  her  good  memory 
and  her  intercourse  with  the  whites. 

I  asked  her  what  was  the  reputation  of  the  law  firm 
of  Van  Hoesen  &  Bigelow.  She  gave  them  a  high 
character  for  integrity. 

I  thanked  her  for  her  information,  and  told  her  that 
if  I  needed  further  advice  I  should  call  upon  her  again. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

MY    LETTER   TO    THE    COLONEL. 

"  I  have  better  news  in  store  for  you 
Than    you  expect." 

— Merchant  of  Venice,  v.  i. 

r  I^HE  third  day  after  my  arrival  in  Baltimore  I  wrote 
1       Colonel  Ruddiman  the  following  letter: 

MY  DEAR  COLONEL:  Permit  me  to  heartily  congratulate  you  and  Miss 
Mary  and  Abigail.  The  estate  which  Buryhill  would  have  bought  from 
you  for  $2,000  is  worth  at  least  $250,000.  The  lease  for  ninety-nine  years, 
made  September  ist,  1790,  expired  September  1st,  1889.  When  it  was 
made,  by  Ephraim  Woodside  and  Belinda,  his  wife,  to  Sylvanus  Carpenter, 
the  property  consisted  of  twenty  acres  of  farm-land;  the  city  has  since  over 
grown  it,  and  it  is  now  partly  built  up,  with  rows  of  houses.  The  present 
holders  of  a  portion  of  it  called  upon  Mess.  Van  Hoesen  &  Bigelow 
to  have  them  hunt  up  the  heirs  of  Ephraim  Woodside,  so  that  they 
could  purchase  a  good  title.  This  is  how  that  firm  came  to  write  to 
Buryhill.  They  offer  $10,000  for  four  houses  and  lots.  I  think  the 
property  is  worth  more  than  that,  but  I  would  advise  that  you 
accept  their  offer;  you  will  thus  be  able  to  settle  with  Buryhill  without 
going  into  debt  to  any  one;  and  you  know  what  a  hell  of  slavery  debt  is. 
And  you  will,  after  selling  this  fraction,  still  have  a  vast  estate  left.  I 
showed  the  marriage-certificates  of  your  parents  and  grandparents  to  Van 
Hoesen  &  Bigelow,  but  they  were  not  necessary,  for  they  had  already 
satisfied  themselves,  from  their  own  researches,  that  you  are  the  sole  heir 
of  Ephraim  Woodside.  They  inclose  to  you  with  this  letter  a  deed  for 
you  to  execute  for  the  four  lots.  When  it  is  returned  to  me,  I  will  receive 
the  $10,000  from  them,  and  deliver  the  deed.  I  also  inclose  a  receipt  for 
you  to  sign,  for  the  $10,000 ;  please  return  it  to  me,  so  that  there  may  be 
no  hesitation  about  paying  me  the  money.  I  have  explained  to  these  gen 
tlemen  Buryhill's  character  and  plans.  They  are  very  indignant,  but  they 
have  promised  not  to  write  him  anything  about  my  presence  here,  or  your 
knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the  estate. 

245 


246  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

As  I  am  afraid  that  B.  may  try  to  intercept  any  letters  to  you,  I  shall 
inclose  this,  and  the  accompanying  papers,  to  Abigail's  address,  and  shall 
telegraph  her  to  inquire  at  the  post-office  for  a  letter  as  soon  as  it  arrives. 
Please  wire  me  as  soon  as  you  receive  this  letter. 

I  again  heartily  and  cordially  congratulate  you  on  your  unexpected  and 
great  good  fortune.  My  only  grief  is  that  the  dread  shadow  of  my  own 
disaster  yet  hangs  about  me,  but  I  still  have  hope — hope,  the  medicine  of 
the  afflicted.  I  remain, 

Your  sincere  friend, 

ANTHONY  HUGUET. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
THE  COLONEL'S  HOUR  OF  TRIUMPH. 

"  Say  what  you  will,  sir,  but  I  know  what  I  know. 

That  you  beat  me  at  the  mart  I  have  your  hand  to  show; 

If  the  skin  were  parchment,  and  the  blows  you  gave  were  ink, 

Your  own  handwriting  would  tell  you  what  I  think." 

—  Coqiedy  of  Errors,  Hi.  i. 

ON  my  return  home  I  brought  with  me  the  $10,000 
in  bank  notes  and  handed  it  over  to  Colonel 
Ruddiman.  He  could  not  thank  me  sufficiently;  he 
said,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  that  I  had  saved  him 
from  ruin.  His  whole  appearance  had  changed;  his 
eyes  were  bright,  his  head  erect,  and  his  face  beaming 
with  the  old  smiles  of  hospitality  and  generosity. 
Mary,  too,  was  transformed;  for  she  had  deeply  sym 
pathized  with  her  father  in  his  distresses,  and  a  heavy 
dread  for  him  was  lifted  from  her  heart.  She  had 
never  touched  my  hand  since  the  time  of  my  great 
calamity;  indeed,  she  seemed  always  to  shrink  from  my 
person.  Now,  with  face  beaming,  she  advanced  and 
took  my  huge  black  paw  and  shook  it  warmly,  and 
thanked  me  earnestly.  It  was  my  intelligence,  she 
said,  that  had  extricated  them  from  their  perilous 
position,  and  she  hoped  that  the  time  was  not  far  dis 
tant  when  they  could  congratulate  me  on  deliverance 
from  the  dreadful  doom  which  had  overtaken  me.  Cer 
tainly,  she  said,  if  prayers  could  storm  the  throne  of 


248  DOCTOR  I1UGUET. 

Grace  and  waken  divine  hearts  to  pity,  the  day  of  ray 
liberation  was  not  far  distant.  Abigail,  who  was  in  all 
the  secrets  of  the  family,  rushed  at  me  with  such  im 
petuosity  of  joy  and  gratitude  that  I  thought  she  was 
about  to  throw  herself  in  my  arms.  But  she  stopped 
short  in  full  career  and  shook  me  by  both  hands 
vehemently. 

For  an  hour  we  sat  and  talked,  and  I  gave  them  all 
the  details  of  my  visit  to  Baltimore,  and  they  laughed 
heartily  at  the  humorous  incidents  which  I  narrated. 
And  we  were  very  happy.  And  then  the  Colonel  and 
Mary  and  Abigail  began  to  discuss  the  future,  and  the 
improvements  they  would  make  in  the  old  homestead; 
the  adjoining  lands  they  would  purchase;  the  new 
horses  and  carriage  they  would  order;  the  help  they 
would  give  to  some  of  the  neighbors,  noble-hearted 
men,  who  had  fallen  into  the  grasp  of  the  usurers,  and 
were  threatened  with  the  same  fate  from  which  they 
had  themselves  just  escaped.  Oh,  what  a  grand  ex 
pansibility  there  is  about  great  wealth!  I  low  it  enlarges 
one's  capacities  for  good  —  yes,  and  for  evil,  too!  How 
it  broadens  one's  thoughts,  and  seems  to  lift  up  the 
very  dome  of  the  visible  world  !  The  difficulty  is,  that 
it  is  usually  obtained  by  arts  which  incapacitate  the 
winner  for  generosity  and  goodness.  This  is  a  world 
of  shameful  limitations  imposed  upon  the  spirit  ;  but 
wealth,  in  worthy  hands,  widens  the  scope  of  our  pos 
sibilities,  and  we  might  fancy  that  it  restores  us  to  that 
pre-natal  condition,  ere  we  were  hampered  by  the  flesh 
and  the  restrictions  of  earth,  and  could  do  anything  and 
everything  which  the  active  spirit  willed. 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


249 


We  were  very  happy,  and  I  forgot  for  a  time  —  and 
I  think  they  did,  too — that  I  was  a  great,  hulking 
black  man,  and  that  they  belonged  to  the  superior, 
snow-white,  dominant  caste. 

I  proposed  that  we  wreak  our  revenge  on  Buryhill, 
not  by  punishing  his  body,  but  by  agonizing  his 
greedy,  grasping  soul,  by  the  acutest  disappointment. 
I  suggested  to  them  how  intensely  interested  he  must 
be  in  the  bold  game  he  was  playing,  the  stake  of  which 
was  an  immense  fortune; — how  he  must  tremble  as 
the  time  approached  when  he  was  about  to  grasp  it. 
And  so  I  prepared  the  following  note,  which  the  Col 
onel  copied,  and  sent  off  by  one  of  the  servants: 

Charles  A.  BuryJiill,  Esq. 

DEAR  SIR:  I  find  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  borrow  $7,000  in 
C on  my  land.  I  have  been  very  much  disappointed  at  the  poor  suc 
cess  I  have  had  in  these  attempts.  I  would  like  to  see  you  at  this  place 
to-morrow  afternoon  at  two  o'clock,  if  convenient  for  you. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obed't  servant, 

WILLIAM  B.  RUDDIMAN. 

P.  S.  You  might  bring  with  you  a  notary  and  the  necessary  papers 
to  close  up  our  transactions.  W.  B.  R. 

"  Now,"  said  I,  "  when  Buryhill  reads  that,  he  will 
conclude  that  you  are  powerless,  and  that  the  vast  Bal 
timore  estate  is  his.  His  joy  will  be  immense.  He 
will  live  in  ecstasy  for  the  next  twenty-four  hours. 
To  now  wrest  this  prey  from  between  his  teeth,  when 
he  is  perfectly  sure  of  it,  will  agonize  his  mean  soul 
more  than  if  you  had  horsewhipped  his  body  till  the 
blood  followed  every  blow  ;  for  the  man's  greed  is  the 
center  and  substance  of  his  very  soul;  and  when  you 
tear  that  property  out  of  his  hands,  which  have,  as  he 


250 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


thinks,  closed  upon  it  securely  forever,  you  will  tear 
the  very  master  chords  and  fibers  out  of  his  being.  It 
will  be  royal  sport  to  see  the  wretch  foiled  in  the 
supreme  hour  of  triumph  ! 

"  I  would  also  suggest  that  you  invite  a  party  of  your 
friends  and  neighbors  to  a  banquet,  at  one  o'clock  ; 
tell  them  the  story  of  your  good  fortune,  and  do  not 
forget  to  whisper  to  the  poor  fellows  who  are  under  the 
harrow  that  your  deliverance  is  to  be  their  deliverance 
also.  Then  have  them  all  in  the  back  parlor  at  two 
o'clock, —  I  will  come  at  that  hour, —  close  the  folding 
doors  and  receive  Buryhill  in  the  front  parlor.  Then, 
at  the  proper  moment,  I  will  throw  open  the  doors, 
and  you  will  make  a  speech,  pay  Buryhill  what  you 
owe  him  and  kick  him  out  of  the  house." 

All  this  plan  we  proceeded  to  carry  out  to  the  letter. 

Never  did  a  happier  party  assemble  in  the  old  home 
stead  than  gathered  next  day  at  that  banquet.  It  is 
true  that,  at  first,  there  was  gloom  upon  the  faces  of 
many  of  the  guests,  for  they  well  knew  that  the  Colonel 
was  embarrassed  and  likely  to  lose  his  plantation,  and 
they  wondered  at  the  folly  and  extravagance  of  the 
man  who,  at  such  a  time,  could  give  such  an  entertain 
ment  and  waste  his  money  upon  wines  and  high-living. 
But  the  Colonel  was  in  his  element.  Never  before  did 
his  face  shine  brighter;  never  did  he  greet  his  friends 
with  warmer  hand-grasp.  Never  did  Mary  Ruddiman 
appear  lovelier  or  happier.  And  when  the  Colonel  — 
the  broad  glasses  being  filled  with  sparkling  champagne 
to  the  very  brim  —  toasted  the  company,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  make  a  speech,  in  which  he  told  them  of  his 


DOC  TOR  HUG  UE  T.  2^1 

v/ 

extraordinary  and  wonderful  fortune,  every  heart  at  the 
table  rejoiced  ;  and  the  uproar  of  congratulations  was 
terrific.  And  when  he  added  that  his  good  luck  would 
now  enable  him  to  help  such  of  his  neighbors  as  were  in 
the  same  slough  of  despair  that  he  had  been  in,  the  guests 
all  rose  and  cheered  the  noble  old  gentleman  till  the 
house  rang,  and  there  were  few  eyes  around  the  board 
that  were  not  wet  with  tears.  But  when  he  went  on  to 
tell  of  Buryhill  and  his  knavish  tricks,  and  the  disap 
pointment  that  was  in  store  for  him,  the  joy  of  those 
present  knew  no  bounds,  and  the  mirth  and  fun  grew 
fast  and  furious  ;  for,  of  all  men,  these  struggling 
planters  most  hated  that  specious,  slippery,  oily  and 
successful  villain. 

At  two  o'clock,  promptly  to  the  minute,  Buryhill  ar 
rived  in  his  grand  carriage,  accompanied1*  by  a  notary 
public,  and  driven  by  a  liveried  servant.  A  score  or 
two  of  eyes  watched  him,  curiously  and  laughingly, 
from  behind  the  curtains  of  the  dining-room.  As  he 
walked  briskly  up  the  walk  he  looked  around  him 
sharply,  with  eyes  of  anticipatory  ownership;  he  seemed 
to  make  a  mental  inventory  of  the  repairs  and  altera 
tions  he  would  require  at  the  end  of  two  years.  The 
Colonel  met  him  and  the  notary,  with  the  most  de 
jected  and  long-faced  aspect  he  could  assume,  and, 
drawing  a  heavy  sigh,  showed  them  into  the  front  par 
lor.  The  guests  had  in  the  meantime  filed,  on  tip-toe, 
into  the  back  parlor.  I  stood  at  the  folding  doors 
(they  mistook  me  for  a  servant),  where  I  could  see  all 
that  transpired  in  the  front  room. 

Buryhill's  manner  to  the  Colonel  was  all  suavity  and 


2^2  &  O  C  TOR  HUG  UE  T. 

courtesy,  but  he  bustled  around  in  a  business-like  way, 
impatient  to  close  the  matter  up  and  enter  into  actual 
possession  of  -his  great  fortune.  He  placed  the  deed, 
mortgage,  etc.,  on  a  table. 

"  Now,  Colonel,"  he  said,  "  you  sign  here.  But  we 
shall  need  another  witness,  besides  the  notary." 

"  Oh,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  don't  worry  about  that. 
I  will  soon  find  one.  But,  first,  let  us  ascertain  just 
how  much  I  owe  you." 

Buryhill  was  prepared. 

"  There,"  he  said,  "  is  the  statement  of  each  item, 
with  the  interest  computed  until  to-day.  It  amounts, 
as  you  see,  to  $7,138.91.  And  there  is  the  mortgage 
with  the  interest  for  one  year  added  in,  in  advance, 
with  the  usual  commission  and  charges.  It  amounts, 
you  see,  altogether,  to  $5,988.98." 

"  Why,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  that  is  nearly 
$6,000  !  " 

Yes,"  replied  Buryhill;  "  these  things  run  up  very 
fast." 

And  the  Colonel  looked  exceedingly  melancholy. 

"  I  dpn't  see,"  he  said,  "  how  I  will  ever  be  able  to 
raise  $6,000  in  two  years,  in  these  dull  times." 

Buryhill  smiled.  He  thought  so  too,  but  he  said 
nothing. 

"  Couldn't  you  throw  off  the  commission  and 
charges,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  and  make  the  mortgage 
for  the  even  $5,138.91 — the  interest  to  be  paid  at 
the  end  of  the  year  ?  " 

"  My  dear  friend,  "said  Buryhill,  "  I  couldn't  possibly 
think  of  doing  so.  The  mortgage  is  drawn  in  strict 


DOCTOR  HUG  VET. 


253 


accordance  with  the  custom  of  capitalists.  And  I  don't 
make  a  cent  out  of  the  matter.  I  am  simply  doing 
this  as  a  friend,  to  help  you  out  of  your  difficulties. 
Any  other  man  would  have  driven  you  to  the  wall." 

"  But  may  not  that  other  property,"  said  the 
Colonel,  "  be  worth  more  than  $2,000  ?  " 

"  No,"  replied  Buryhill;  "  in  fact,  since  I  wrote  you 
my  letter,  making  you  the  offer  I  did,  I  have  found 
out  that  there  is  another  defect  in  the  title,  and  I  shall 
probably  never  recover  back  a  cent  of  the  $2,000  I 
pay  you.  But  I  feel  that  an  honorable  man  must  stick 
to  his  bargain,  even  if  he  loses  by  it;  and  then  my 
friendship  for  you  and  your  family  counts  for  a  great 
deal  with  me.  Indeed,  if  a  certain  person  were  not 
so  cold  and  haughty,  I  think  I  could  see  how  this 
whole  matter  might  have  been  arranged  without  the 
payment  of  a  penny.  But  that  is  all  past  now.  "  And 
Buryhill  drew  a  gentle  sigh. 

"Make  the  mortgage  $5,000,"  said  the  Colonel; 
"  call  the  outside  property  worth  $2,138." 

Really,  my  dear  Colonel,"  replied  Buryhill,  "  I 
couldn't  do  it.  I  have  put  things  up  to  the  highest 
notch." 

"  How  much  did  you  say  the  whole  amount  of  my 
indebtedness  was?"  inquired  the  Colonel  again. 

Here    is    the     memorandum,"    replied    Buryhill  — 

"$7,138.91." 

"  Well,"  said  the  Colonel,  looking  very  miserable, 
I  suppose  we  will  need  another  witness. " 
"  Yes,  yes,"  replied   Buryhill  eagerly,   pushing  the 
deed  before  the   Colonel,  but  so  folded  that  the  de- 


254 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


scription  of  the  property  did  not  appear.  "  Sign  here, 
Colonel  —  right  on  this  line,"  (pointing  with  his 
finger). 

The  Colonel  rose  and  looked  at  the  folding  doors. 
That  was  the  signal  agreed  upon.  In  an  instant  the 
doors  rolled  back,  and  Buryhill  found  himself  face  to 
face  with  a  crowd  of  the  principal  citizens  of  the 
vicinity,  who  regarded  him  with  no  friendly  eyes. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  we  needed  a  wit 
ness,  and  it  is  well  to  have  enough  of  them,  In  the 
first  place,  I  owe  this  man  $7,138.91.  There,"  hesaid, 
laying  a  roll  of  bills  upon  the  table,  "  is  the  amount. 
Count  it  and  sign  these  receipts  and  certificates  of  sat 
isfaction.  The  notary  will  see  that  everything  is  reg 
ular." 

The  astonishment  of  Buryhill  was  indescribable. 
His  face  grew  very  white,  and  his  eyes  wandered  from 
one  to  the  other,  as  if  he  could  not  make  out  what  it 
all  meant.  Then  he  glanced  at  the  pile  of  bank-notes, 
and  then  at  the  face  of  Colonel  Ruddiman,  who,  in 
stead  of  the  dejected  debtor  of  a  few  moments  ago, 
towered  before  him  a  very  picture  of  wrath  and  right 
eous  indignation. 

The  Colonel  pushed  the  money  before  the  notary. 

"  Count  it,  Mr.  Hughes,"  said  he;  "  see  if  it  is  right 

and  make  this  d d  rascal  sign  these  papers,  for  we 

want  to  get  through  this  business  and  get  him  out  of 
this  house,  which  his  presence  pollutes." 

The  notary  counted  the  money,  and  still  Buryhill 
glared  around  him,  a  realization  of  the  changed  con- 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  255 

ditions  working  themselves  slowly  through  his  aston 
ished  brain. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  the  Colonel,  "  you  see  this  miser 
able  wretch  standing  here  !  Public  opinion  would 
justify  me  if  I  shot  him  dead  in  his  tracks.  Think  of 
it !  I  received  him  into  my  house  as  a  friend;  I  seated 
him  at  my  own  table,  in  the  midst  of  my  family  and 
friends,  and,  while  he  was  eating  my  meat  and  drink 
ing  my  wine,  he  was  plotting  how  he  could  turn  me 
out  of  the  home  of  my  ancestors,  and  send  me,  a  ruined 
man,  to  the  poor-house.  And  all  this  time  he  smiled 
upon  me,  and  drank  to  my  health,  and  flattered  me, 
and  smiled  and  smiled  again.  And  in  the  midst  of 
hilarity  and  good-fellowship,  while  other  men's  souls 

expanded  and  grew  kindly  and  brotherly,  this  d d 

wolf  was  plotting  how  he  could  devour  me.  And  what 
did  he  do?  "  continued  the  Colonel,  waxing  eloquent. 
"  He  proceeded  to  find  out  every  dollar  that  I  owed, 
and  every  incumbrance  on  my  property.  Most  of  it 
was  held  by  friends,  kindly-hearted  men,  who  would 
never  have  troubled  me  until  times  were  better,  for 
they  knew  they  were  amply  secured  and  that  their  inter- 
,st  would  be  paid  regularly.  He  —  this  wretch  here 
—  circulated  reports  that  I  was  hopelessly  ruined  !  And 
.at  I  was  an  irreclaimable  drunkard!  He  had  his 
agents  at  work  spreading  these  reports  everywhere,  as 
I  have  lately  ascertained.  And  then  he  proceeded  to 
buy  up  the  claims  against  me  —  mortgages,  notes,  tax- 
titles,  book  accounts  —  at  as  large  discount  as  he  coulcl. 
And  all  this  time  he  visited  my  house  and  kept  up  the 
appearance  of  being  my  loving  friend!  Oh,  the  damn- 


256  DOCTOR  liUGUF.T. 

able  villain!"  And  the  Colonel's  hands  twitched  con 
vulsively,  in  an  ominous  fashion. 

"  At  this  time  an  estate  which  had  descended  to  me 
from  one  of  my  ancestors,  in  Baltimore"  (here  Bury- 
hill's  face  collapsed  and  his  jaw  dropped),  "  reverted 
to  me  at  the  end  of  a  ninety-nine  years' lease  —  an  estate 
worth  a  quarter  million  of  dollars.  A  letter  was  sent 
to  me  to  announce  the  fact,  from  a  firm  of  attorneys  in 
Baltimore,  in  care  of  this  thief  and  scoundrel  "  (Buryhill 
started);  "  but  instead  of  delivering  it  to  me  he  opened 
the  letter,  read  its  contents,  put  it  in  his  pocket,  — my 
letter, —  and  then  proceeded  to  lay  his  plans  to  rob  me 
of  that  vast  inheritance." 

Buryhill  grew  whiter  and  whiter  and  seemed  to  shrink 
within  himself. 

"  He  offered  me  $2,OOO  for  what  he  knew  was 
worth  $250,000.  If  the  wretch  had  had  the  slight 
est  spark  of  generosity  or  manhood  he  would  have 
given  me  my  home  clear,  when  he  knew  he  was  about 
to  swindle  me  out  of  such  a  vast  sum.  But  he  wanted 
the  quarter  of  a  million  in  Baltimore,  and  he  wanted 
everything  else  I  had  in  the  world.  Why,  as  he  came 
up  the  garden  walk  yonder,  this  very  day,  I  saw 
him  carefully  observing  my  Jersey  cattle,  in  the  neigh 
boring  field;  and  I  could  see  he  was  devising  how  he- 
would  get  hold  of  them  also,  for  unpaid  interest,  when 
the  poor,  old,  drunken  Colonel,  at  the  end  of  two  years, 
was  turned  out  of  house  and  home.  Oh  !  I  can 
scarcely  keep  my  hands  off  him! 

Buryhill  recoiled  before  the  glaring  eyes  and  men 
acing  attitude  of  the  old  soldier. 


DOCTOR  HUG  VET, 


257 


"  Why,  even  here,  and  now,"  he  continued,  "  while 
he  believed  that  I  was  ready  to  sign  a  deed  that  would 
give  him  a  vast  fortune,  for  a  mere  pittance,  he  refused 
to  abate  a  single  dollar  of  his  claim.  If  it  had  not  been 
for  yonder  poor  man,"  said  the  Colonel,  pointing  to 
me,  where  I  stood  in  the  doorway,  "  yonder  poor 
negro, —  for  such  he  appears  to  be, —  I  should  have  been 
utterly  lost  and  ruined." 

Buryhill  turned  and  looked  at  me  with  keen  and 
curious  interest. 

"  And  now,"  continued  the  Colonel,  "  sign  those 
papers,  and  leave  this  house  before  I  lose  control  of 
myself.  I  had  intended  to  call  you  out.  and  shoot  you 
down,  but  you  are  not  worthy  of  any  honest  man's 
bullet.  I  had  thought  of  having  my  negroes  horse 
whip  you  within  an  inch  of  your  life,  but  cooler  coun 
sels  have  prevailed.  I  have  exposed  you  in  the  face  of 
the  whole  people.  If  you  can  continue  to  live  in  this 
country  after  to-day,  you  have  a  tougher  hide  than 
even  I  give  you  credit  for." 

Buryhill  by  this  time  had  recovered  his  self-posses 
sion.  He  had  not  spoken  a  word  in  reply  to  all  the 
torrents  of  abuse  poured  out  upon  him.  They  did 
not  worry  him  one-tenth  as  much  as  the  thought  that 
that  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  was  lost  forever,  and 
that  the  Colonel  was  out  of  his  power.  Kis  eyes, 
constantly  traveling  that  circle  of  wrathful  counte 
nances,  kept  reverting  to  me,  as  if  wondering  how  one 
so  ignorant-looking  could  have  outwitted  him  so  com 
pletely,  and  puzzling  his  head  to  know  how  I  had  dis 
covered  his  precious  secret.  And  then,  I  could  see,  he 


258  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

indulged  in  some  calculations  as  to  how  much  of  that 
$7>l3$-9l  was  profit,  and  he  took  some  slight  share  of 
comfort  out  of  his  mental  arithmetic.  He  picked  up  the 
roll  of  money,  in  his  usual  bustling,  busy  \vay,  and 
proceeded  to  count  it,  with  great  care;  occasionally 
holding  a  bank-note  up  to  the  light  to  make 
sure  it  was  not  a  counterfeit.  Having  finished  this 
task,  he  buttoned  up  the  money  in  his  breast-pocket, 
and,  scrutinizing  the  papers  which  the  Colonel  had  had 
prepared  for  him,  he  signed  them.  Then,  rising  with 
a  brisk  smirk  on  his  face,  he  said  : 

"  Colonel,  permit  me  to  congratulate  you  on  your 
good  fortune.  Mr.  Hughes,  I  guess  we  had  better  be 
moving.  Gentlemen,  good  day  to  you  all."  And  he 
waved  his  hand  in  a  half  circle  around  the  scowling 
group.  But  as  he  moved  toward  the  door  I  could  see 
that  there  was  a  quickness  in  his  step  and  an  alertness 
in  his  manner  that  betrayed  trepidation. 

But  Mr.  Hughes  held  back. 

"  Mr.  Buryhill,"  he  said,  "  you  can  go  back  alone.  I 
prefer  to  walk  back  to  C . " 

"  All  right,"  replied  the  imperturbable  rascal  as  he 
stepped  into  the  hall.  The  next  moment  I  heard  a 
scuffling  noise,  and,  pressing  forward  with  the  rest, 
I  saw  Dr.  Magruder  holding  him  by  the  back  of  the 
neck,  and  inflicting  a  series  of  kicks  upon  his  person, 
every  one  of  which  lifted  him  from  the  porch,  while  he 
struggled  and  howled. 

"  You  infernal  rascal,"  cried  the  Doctor,  emphasiz 
ing  every  third  word  with  a  kick,  "  you  are  a  disgrace 
(kick)  to  your  birth-place  (kick)  and  your  calling  (kick) 


DOCTOR  HLrGUET. 


259 


and  your  race  (kick).  Take  that  (kick)  !  and  that 
(kick)  !  and  that  !  "  (a  culminating  kick). 

Here  the  Doctor's  wind  gave  out,  for  he  was  rather 
pursy,  and  the  exercise  he  had  taken  was  violent;  but 
still  he  held  on  to  his  victim. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  I  am  ashamed  of  this  creat 
ure;  I  am  ashamed  of  him  as  a  Northern  man.  The 
North  is  a  land  of  heroes — the  war  proved  that.  I 
want  you  to  understand  that  it  produces  very  few  such 
scoundrels  as  this.  They  are  the  latest  fruit  of  our 
'commercial  age;'  of  the  'business  era,'  proudly  so 
called,  which  now  dominates  politics,  religion  and 
everything  else;  in  which,  if  a  man  steals  enough  and 
keeps  out  of  the  penitentiary,  he  becomes  an  aristo 
crat.  God  help  the  country  where  such  Dead  Sea 
apples  grow  on  the  Tree  of  Knowledge." 

And  the  Doctor  accentuated  this  last  generalization 
with  another  kick  which  sent  Buryhill  flying  down  the 
steps.  Here  Captain  Braynton  and  one  of  the  Colonel's 
sons  were  waiting  for  him,  and  they  passed  him  on  to 
his  carriage  and  his  waiting  servant  in  livery,  by  a  suc 
cession  of  rousing  liftings  from  the  earth,  so  rapid  that 
his  feet  did  not  rest  on  terra  firnia  half  the  time.  He 
looked  like  a  fallen  angel  traversing  space,  with  his  dis 
turbed  coat-tails  standing  out  behind  him  as  a  poor 
substitute  for  wings. 

At  last,  sore  and  furious  and  swearing  vengeance,  he 
clambered  into  his  vehicle,  and  the  intelligent  colored 
man,  who  fully  comprehended  the  whole  situation,  and 
appreciated  his  master  thoroughly,  drove  off  as  fast  as 
his  horses  could  travel. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

ABIGAIL    HAS    A    PROPOSAL. 

"  She'll  none  of  the  Count;  she'll  not  match  above  her  degree,  neither 
in  estate,  years  nor  wit.  I  have  heard  her  swear  it." 

—  Twelfth  Night,  i.  j. 

HOW  glad  I  was  to  get  back  to  my  scholars,  and 
how  glad  they  were  to  see  me  !  There  had 
been  desolation  enough  in  their  hearts  during  my 
absence.  They  had  been  very  solicitous  about  my 
sickness,  and  had  hung  around  the  barn  night  and 
day.  Never  did  Roman  conqueror,  returning  with  the 
trophies  and  spoils  of  plundered  provinces,  receive  a 
warmer  welcome  than  I.  And  it  was  a  pleasure  to 
me — a  great  pleasure,  to  set  all  those  intellects  going 
again,  and  see  the  effect  of  the  trooping  armies  of 
knowledge  entering  their  brains.  Really,  learning  is 
like  charity:  "  it  blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that 
takes." 

One  old  man,  who  had  been  a  faithful  scholar  at 
seventy  years  of  age,  had  died  during  my  absence,  but 
his  widow  and  his  children  were  all  there.  I  had 
observed  the  old  man's  eagerness  for  knowledge, 
tottering  as  he  was  on  the  very  brink  of  the  grave,  and 
I  asked  myself  whether  our  mental  acquisitions  in  this 
world  were  carried  away  with  us  into  the  next?  Why 
not?  It  must  be  the  thinking  principle  that  is  im 
mortal,  and  memory  is  surely  part  of  the  thought- 


DOC  TOR  HUG  UET.  2  6  I 

apparatus.  In  fact,  without  memory  there  cannot  be 
self-consciousness.  We  either  retain  our  knowledge, 
or  we  live  not. 

The  old  man's  death  set  me  to  thinking  what  a 
strange,  temporary  world  this  is.  Death  is  always 
busy  around  us,  and  his  darts  fly  thicker  than  the  sun 
beams.  Try  to  recall  the  faces  of  those  you  have 
known,  who  have  crossed  the  dark  river,  and  what  an 
innumerable  caravan  recollection  summons  up  !  What 
a  banquet  we  would  have  if  we  could  sit  down  with  the 
dead  ! 

Indeed,  it  has  sometimes  seemed  to  me  that  we  are 
all  voyaging  together  over  a  rough  sea,  on  a  loosely 
constructed  raft,  full  of  holes.  You  turn  to  speak  with 
a  friend,  and,  lo  !  he  is  gone,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye;  —  not  a  bubble  left  of  him.  You  turn  to  another, 
and,  as  you  converse  with  him,  he  drops  out  of  sight, 
into  the  great  deep,  before  your  very  eyes.  You  be 
gin  to  realize  that  this  wonderful  structure,  called  Life, 
is  made,  not  to  carry  its  passengers,  but  to  drown  them; 
and  that,  but  for  the  new  souls  which  constantly 
clamber  painfully  up  its  rickety  sides,  it  would  soon 
be  sailing  tenantless  over  the  dark  waves.  And 
you  commence  to  study  the  loose,  shifting  planks  be 
neath  your  feet,  half-submerged  in  the  water;  and  to 
watch,  with  intense  interest,  every  tremor  in  the  fabric. 
The  wonder  is,  you  think,  that  the  precarious  structure 
does  not  altogether  dissolve  and  sink  in  the  billows  of 
time,  leaving  only  lifeless  fragments  in  the  midst  of  a 
dead  universe. 

One  evening,  as  I  looked  out  through  the  twilight, 


262  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

waiting  for  my  scholars  to  assemble,  I  saw  two  figures, 
a  man  and  a  woman,  riding  through  the  sunset  toward 
me.  At  last  they  stopped,  and  the  man  turned  back, 
while  the  woman  rode  forward.  It  was  Abigail,  look 
ing  very  bright  and  handsome,  as  she  reined  up  her 
black  pony  and  dismounted. 

"  What,  Abigail  !  "  I  said,  "  is  that  a  lover?  Who 
is  he  ?"  For  I  felt  a  deep  interest  in  the  fair  girl. 

She  blushed  and  laughed  and  looked  confused. 

"  Yes,"  she  said,  and  her  laughter  grew  merrier; 
"  yes,  I  have  had  an  offer  of  marriage." 

"  Who  is  it,  Abigail  ?" 

"  Can't  you  guess  ?  " 

"  No,  indeed,"  I  replied. 

"  It  was  from  yourself,"  she  said. 

"  From  myself?     What  do  you  mean?" 

"  From  Doctor  Anthony  Huguet,"  she  replied  with 
a  mischievous  smile.  "  Yes,  from  your  body,  but  not 
from  your  soul." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  miserable  wretch  who  has  taken 
my  place  in  life  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Yes,"  she  said  laughing,  "  but  you  should  not 
speak  thus  of  one's  lover." 

"  Has  he  really  offered  you  marriage  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  she  replied;  "  he  has  hung  around 
our  place  for  weeks,  pestering  me  every  time  I  went 
out  of  the  house.  First  he  made  me  unworthy  pro 
posals,  and  I  struck  him  with  my  riding-whip  across  the 
face.  Then  he  grew  more  desperate,  and  to-night,  as 
he  rode  over  here  with  me,  he  proposed  to  marry  me. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


263 


He  said  he  would  make  me  a  white  lady,  and  one  of 
the  richest  and  greatest  in  the  land." 

"  And  what  did  you  say?"  I  inquired  anxiously. 

I  laughed  at  him.  I  told  him  he  was  not  Doctor 
Huguet,  but  Sam  Johnsing,  the  chicken-thief.  And 
that  he  was  likely,  at  any  moment,  when  the  heavenly 
powers  relented,  to  go  back  into  his  own  body,  and 
then  you  would  return  to  your  true  form,  and"  —  here 
she  blushed  deeply  —  "you  would  repudiate  such  a 
marriage,  for  your  heart  was  devoted  to  Mary.  He 
got  very  angry  at  this,  and  said  you  would  not  trouble 
anybody  very  long,  and  he  muttered  and  swore.  I 
really  think  he  means  you  some  mischief.  Then  he 
saw  you  sitting  here  and  rode  off." 

"  Do  you  think  you  will  accept  him,  Abigail?"  I 
asked,  to  test  her. 

"  Oh,  no,"  she  replied;  "  I  would  not  marry  him  if  he 
were  the  last  man  in  the  world,  and  if  I  knew  that  he 
would  remain  Doctor  Huguet  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
The  creature  has  no  soul.  He  has  fallen  in  love,  as  he 
would  call  it,  with  my  person.  He  wants  to  possess 
me,  and  in  his  passion  he  would  sacrifice  his  social 
position  as  a  white  man  to  the  gratification  of  his  feel 
ings,  and  then  he  would  throw  me  away  as  a  worthless 
incumbrance.  His  skin  is  temporarily  white,  but  his 
heart  is  blacker  and  fouler  and  falser  than  any  negro  in 
the  whole  land.  He  is  a  low,  bad  man,  and  I  would 
sooner  —  yes,  a  thousand  times  sooner  —  die  unwed 
than  merge  my  life  with  that  of  such  a  creature.  I 
would  rather  marry  a  black  man,  whom  I  loved  and 
respected,  than  share  wealth  and  social  distinction  with 


264  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

that  wretch."  Then  she  added:  "But  there  is  no 
future  for  me  but  to  live  and  die  an  old  maid."  Here 
she  laughed  again.  "  But  that  is  not  the  worst  fate  in 
the  world.  I  have  seen  a  great  many  sweet  and  lovely 
women  —  and  useful  women,  too  —  who  will  never  enter 
into  matrimony.  Single  blessedness  is  better  than 
double  wretchedness." 

And  yet  I  knew  that  life,  warm,  pulsing,  throbbing 
life,  beat  through  every  artery  of  her  fair  body,  and 
that  this  was  only  the  cold  philosophy  to  which  she 
had  schooled  herself.  And  my  heart  pitied  her.  Her 
soul  was  high  and  noble;  and,  educated  and  bred  in 
the  midst  of  kind  friends,  there  was  not  a  taint  of 
servility  or  sordidness  in  her  nature. 

Alas  !  poor  Abigail  —  bright  and  cheery  and  lovely 
and  lovable  —  little  did  I  think,  as  she  looked  back 
from  her  seat  in  the  saddle,  and  laughingly  waved  me 
adieu,  what  a  dark  doom  was  even  then  suspended 
over  her  head.  But  life  is  like  the  heavens  :  we  never 
know  what  storms  and  thunderbolts  may  come  out  of 
it;  we  never  know  how  soon  the  many-tinted  cloud- 
wreaths  which  adorn,  like  picturesque  scarfs,  the 
drapery  of  the  dying  day,  may  turn  into  black  and 
horrible  tempests  and  lay  cities  low.  The  Fates  that 
preside  over  the  destinies  of  men  seem  to  love  the  very 
grotesqueries  of  fortune.  Now  they  lift  up  the  half- 
fed  boy  to  a  throne;  and  anon  they  send  forth  the  king 
a  beggar  and  a  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  At 
one  moment  they  squeeze  the  heart  of  splendid  suc 
cess  until  it  sheds  streams  of  blood  ;  and  anon  they 
make  the  soul  of  the  unutterably  miserable  to  sing 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  265 

aloud  for  joy.  And  there  is  no  science  of  meteorology 
that  will  tell  us  what  is  on  the  way  to  us  out  of  the 
overhanging  skies  of  our  lives.  We  can  only  bow 
reverently  to  the  unseen  forces,  and  take  all  that  comes 
with  a  stout  heart. 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

MY    MIDNIGHT   VISITORS. 

"  Strange  that,  where  Nature  lov'd  to  trace, 
As  if  for  gods,  a  dwelling-place, 
And  every  charm  and  grace  hath  mixed 
Within  the  paradise  she  fixed, 
That  man,  enamored  of  distress, 
Should  turn  it  into  wilderness. 
Strange  that,  where  all  is  peace  beside, 
There  passion  riots  in  her  pride, 
And  lust  and  rapine  wildly  reign 
To  darken  all  the  fair  domain." 

—  The  Giaour     (Byron'). 

IT  was  a  few  nights  after  my  interview  with  Abigail 
that  I  found  a  vast  multitude  assembled  at  my 
school-house.  Every  bench  was  occupied;  crowds 
stood  in  the  aisles  and  looked  through  the  doors  and 
windows.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  whole  population, 
black  and  white,  of  the  neighborhood,  had  turned  out 
to  listen  to  me.  There  was  a  time  when  such  an  as 
semblage  would  have  flattered  my  vanity,  but  I  had 
been  so  chastened  by  humiliation  that  all  such  feelings 
had  long  since  departed  from  my  breast.  For  I  kept  re 
peating  to  myself:  How  little  a  thing  is  glory?  It 
consists  simply  of  thoughts  of  you  in  the  minds  of  oth 
ers;  and  in  a  short  time  those  others  will  be  dust,  and 
their  very  names  have  perished.  And  what  is  immor 
tality  ?  Who  were  the  great  men  that  lived  before 

Agamemnon?     Lost!     Lost!     And  the  day  will  come 

266 


DOCTOR  HUG UE T.  267 

when  the  earth's  generations  will  have  forgotten 
Alexander  and  Napoleon.  Fame  ?  Fame  is  nothing. 
We  leave  nothing  behind  us  on  this  earth  that  is  per 
manent,  except  our  influence  for  good  or  ill;  that  goes 
on,  visible  to  God,  but  invisible  to  men  —  a  force  in  the 
affairs  of  humanity,  spreading  like  a  great,  undying  rip 
ple  in  the  sea  of  mind.  Big  or  little,  eminent  or  obscure, 
we  each  contribute  to  that  intangible  net-work  of  earth- 
forces,  forever  renewing  themselves  with  every  new 
brain  that  is  born  into  the  world.  Fame  !  No;  let  us 
do  our  duty. 

I  preached  peace  and  charity  to  that  vast  assem 
blage.  I  told  them  how  beautiful  was  gentleness  ;  how 
hideous  and  barbaric  was  cruelty  ;  how  quickly 
goodness  sprang  up  at  the  summons  of  goodness  ; 
how  prolific  evil  was  in  begetting  evil.  I  showed 
how  transitory  life  was,  with  all  its  bigotries  and  pas 
sions  and  little,  petty  interests.  I  quoted  to  them 
the  remark  of  the  great  German,  "  that  only  man 
kind  was  the  true  man.  "  I  drew  a  picture  of  death  — 
not  the  judgment  day  of  flame,  but  the  momentous  act 
of  taking  rank  in  the  invisible  world,  clad  in  the  atmos 
phere  of  our  deeds  on  earth.  The  segregating  of  the 
good  from  the  bad  ;  the  repulsive  crowding  together 
of  the  evil  with  the  evil  ;  and  then  the  beginning  of 
new  careers  of  work  and  influence  upon  the  minds  of 
those  yet  dwelling  in  the  flesh,  for  blessing  or  for  ban. 
And  I  spoke  of  >the  suddenness  of  the  great  summons 
of  death  : 

"  The  gambler,  reckoning  gains,  shall  drop  a  piece, 
Look  down  —  and  there  see  death !  Look  up  —  there  God ! " 


268  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

Charity  —  Charity  —  divine  Charity,  was  the  theme 
of  my  discourse  —  brotherly  love — pity  for  the  un 
fortunate.  I  said  to  them  that  I  did  not  expect  black 
men  to  become  white  men,  or  white  men  to  turn  into 
black  men  ;  but  there  was  room  on  God's  footstool  for 
them  all.  The  blue  flowers  in  the  meadow  did  not 
quarrel  with  the  red  flowers.  The  oak  tree  grew  peace 
fully  beside  the  maple.  The  orange  did  not  ask  God 
why  he  made  the  laurel.  Death  was  not  a  thing  to  be 
dreaded,  if  man  lived  right. 

"  For  modes  of  faith  let  graceless  zealots  fight : 
lie  can't  be  wrong  whose  life  is  in  the  right. 
In  Faith  and  Hope  the  world  will  disagree, 
But  all  mankind's  concern  is  Charity. " 

Death  was  as  natural  as  life  ;  there  was  nothing  hor 
rible  about  it.  It  was  superstition  that  had  invested 
it  with  terrors  and  hobgoblins. 

Let  the  mantle  of  Christian  chanty  cover  the  differ 
ences  of  race  and  social  conditions,  for  under  it  all  men 
could  dwell  together  in  peace  and  happiness. 

I  then  took  up  the  subject  of  the  evening,  the 
French  Revolution.  I  showed  that  even  the  ex 
cesses  of  that  dreadful  time  had  been  caused  by  a 
thousand  years  of  oppression,  which  had  unfitted  men 
for  peaceful  self-government;  and  that  the  "  Reign  of 
Terror  "  itself  was  due  to  the  machinations  of  outside 
despotism,  determined  to  discredit  liberty;  and  that 
the  money  of  Pitt  and  the  English ,  aristocracy  had 
paid  for  the  extravagancies  of  Anacharsis  Klootz  and 
the  Goddess  of  Reason. 

It  was  nearly  eleven  before  the  audience   dispersed 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  269 

to  their  homes,  and  midnight  before  I  had  fallen  to 
sleep  in  my  little  room  in  the  barn.  I  well  remember 
how  brightly  the  moonlight  shone  in  through  my  win 
dow  and  fell  in  a  flood  of  mellow  glory  over  my  bed. 
It  was  a  peaceful,  lovely  night  —  a  night  in  which  to 
thank  God  for  the  privilege  of  living. 

How  long  1  had  slept  I  know  not  —  perhaps  an  hour. 
I  was  awakened  by  a  great  pounding  on  the  door  of 
the  barn.  I  looked  out  through  the  window  and  saw 
a  group  of  horses  tied  to  some  trees  near  at  hand.  I 
went  to  the  door  and  opened  it.  I  was  at  once  seized 
by  several  men.  I  looked  around  and  perceived  that 
I  was  surrounded  by  a  group  of  about  twenty  men, 
wearing  white  masks  over  their  faces.  Those  who  had 
hold  of  me  led  me  out  into  the  road. 

A  tall  young  man,  who  seemed  to  be  the  spokesman 
of  the  party,  said  to  me  : 

You  d d  rascal,  what  do  you  mean  by  teaching 

the  niggers  to  read  and  write,  and  preaching  to 
them  ?  " 

I  was  perfectly  undaunted.  Life  was  not  so  bright 
or  hopeful  that  the  threatened  loss  of  it  could  intim 
idate  me.  I  thought  my  hour  had  come, —  and  my 
release  with  it. 

"  Can  you  read  and  write?"  I  asked  him. 

"  Certainly,"  he  replied. 

"  Are  you  any  the  worse  for  it?"  I  asked. 

He  struck  me  a  severe  blow  in  the  face,  which  brought 
the  blood,  and  replied: 

"  Do  you  compare  me  with  the  niggers,  you  black 
whelp?" 


270 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


"  There  is  no  negro  in  this  country,"  I  said,  "  who 
would  strike  a  prisoner,  unable  to  defend  himself.  You 
are  a  white  coward,  and  a  disgrace  to  your  race." 

"  Kill  him,"  shouted  a  little  man,  whose  figure  I 
thought  I  recognized. 

The  tall  fellow  advanced  on  me  with  a  bowie-knife 
in  his  hand,  but  one  of  my  captors  struck  his  arm  up 
and  said: 

"Stop,  Harry!  You  know  our  agreement:  there  was 
to  be  no  murder." 

"  Kill  him,"  repeated  the  little  man,  fiercely,  draw 
ing  a  revolver. 

But  another  of  the  party  grasped  him  around  the 
arms,  and  said: 

"  None  of  that,  Doctor!  You  know  how  the  people 
feel  around  here;  there  will  be  trouble  if  you  kill  this 
man." 

A  number  of  others  echoed  this  sentiment. 

"  We  want  you  to  leave  this  hcah  country,"  said  the 
tall  fellow  they  called  Harry.  "  Will  you  go?" 

"  No!"  I  replied,  emphatically. 

"  Then  we  will  kill  you,"  he  replied. 

"  What  do  I  care  for  death?"  I  answered,  calmly. 
"  My  life  is  more  dreadful  than  any  death!" 

There  was  silence  for  a  moment  or  two  after  this 
strange  answer. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  teaching  the  niggers  ? 
Don't  you  know  that  this  is  a  white  man's  country,  and 
that  no  niggers  can  rule  over  us?  What  do  you  mean 
by  making  them  know  as  much  as  white  people  ?" 

"  My  every  word  has  been  scanned,"  I  replied,  "  and 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 


271 


you  know  I  have  never  uttered  a  syllable  to  set  race 
against  race.  I  have  always  argued  that  politics 
should  be  a  thing  apart  from  race,  and  should  have  no 
connection  with  the  color  of  the  skin.  My  teaching  has 
made  the  negroes  better  laborers  and  better  citizens.  " 

"  But  this  is  a  white  man's  country,  I  tell  you,"  he 
replied  fiercely,  "  and  the  niggers  are  beasts  of  burden, 
and  must  be  kept  in  their  places.  That  is  what  General 
Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson  fought  for." 

"  Do  not  profane  the  names  of  those  great  men,"  I 
replied,  "  by  connecting  them  with  such  midnight 
maraudings  as  this.  They  were  gallant  soldiers.  Do 
you  think  they  would,  if  alive,  stand  by  and  see  twenty 
men  assault  one,  no  matter  what  was  the  color  of  his 
skin  ?  Can  you  imagine  them,  after  spending  a  night 
in  the  company  of.  black  women,  attacking  a  negro  for 
teaching  whites  and  blacks  to  read  and  write?  No, 
no;  you  dishonor  them  by  speaking  their  names  out  of 
your  foul  mouths,  reeking  with  the  smell  of  Mother 
Bindell's  whisky.  They  did  not  fight  for  Slavery. 
They  fought  for  State  Rights  and  Liberty  as  they  under 
stood  them.  Both  of  them  wanted  the  Confederate 
Government  to  arm  the  blacks  and  make  them  free,  on 
condition  that  they  fought  for  the  South.  If  their 
advice  had  been  followed  the  result  might  have  been 
different.  They  were  great  men,  broad-minded  and 
humane,  religious  and  philanthropic.  They  were 
nursed  at  black  breasts  and  they  had  no  hatred  for  the 
poor  negroes.  But  you!  Your  highest  aspirations 
are  to  get  drunk  and  kill  school-teachers." 

They    were    furious.     They    gathered    in    a    group 


2/2 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


a  short  distance  from  me,  gesticulating  wildly  and 
arguing.  I  could  hear  the  small  man  they  called  Doc 
tor  insisting  that  I  must  be  killed  at  once,  while  others, 
in  lower  tones,  spoke  in  favor  of  moderation.  Then 
they  whispered  together.  I  thought  the  end  had  come 
when  they  surrounded  me  in  a  body.  One  burly  fel 
low  with  a  quick  jerk  tore  my  night-gown  from  me  and 
left  me  stark  naked.  A  dozen  hands  seized  me  and 
dragged  me  to  a  tree  and  securely  tied  me  to  it,  with 
my  arms  around  the  trunk. 

"  Now,"  said  the  tall  fellow,  "  will  you  agree  to  quit 
this  country  at  once,  if  we  let  you  go?" 

"  No!"  I  shouted. 

"  Then  let  him  have  it,"  said  he;  "  give  him  a  bull's 
dose!" 

And  instantly  a  great  whip,  with  many  knotted 
lashes,  encircled  me  with  a  fierce,  stinging  blow,  and  I 
could  feel  the  blood  starting  out  of  the  skin  and  trick 
ling  down  my  back.  I  never  winced.  I  shut  my  teeth 
and  determined  to  die  ere  I  would  cry  out.  Again  it 
fell  —  and  again  —  and  again  —  and  again.  The 
wounds  crossed  and  re-crossed  each  other.  The  lashes 
cut  into  places  already  raw.  The  pain  was  dreadful. 
One  ruffian  relieved  another.  At  length  a  merciful  in 
sensibility  came  to  my  relief.  I  had  fainted. 

In  the  gray  of  the  morning  some  negroes  found  me, 
still  tied  to  the  tree;  my  back  a  revolting  mass  of 
wounds;  my  whole  body  cased  in  dried,  caked  blood, 
down  to  my  very  heels. 

They  tenderly  released  me,  carried  me  in,  and  placed 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


273 


me  upon  the  bed,  and  one  hurried  off  for  the  physi 
cian.  The  news  spread  like  wild-fire.  In  an  hour  a 
thousand  persons,  whites  and  blacks,  had  gathered.  All 
were  indignant;  the  blacks  sullen,  scowling,  threatening. 
I  was  their  brother.  I  had  suffered  for  them.  They 
whispered  together,  their  features  working  with  rage. 

I  heard  of  the  dangerous  aspect  of  things  as  I  lay 
writhing  in  pain.  I  sent  for  the  leaders.  They  swarmed 
into  my  room,  and  through  the  doorway  and  the 
window's  I  could  see  a  vast  array  of  convulsed  and 
angry  faces. 

"  Men,  "  I  said,  "  black  men,  it  is  true  I  have  suffered 
these  great  wrongs  because  I  tried  to  serve  you; 
because  I  would  not  desert  you;  but  those  who  did  this 
thing  do  not  represent  the  great,  humane,  honorable 
white  race  of  the  South.  They  are  ruffians,  cowards, 
scoundrels,  drunkards,  debauchees.  Rum  is  at  the 
bottom  of  all  this,  as  it  is  at  the  bottom  of  most  of  the 
evil-doings  of  the  world.  But  look  at  the  white 
people  gathered  here.  They  know  I  have  not  deserved 
this  treatment.  They  are  as  indignant  as  you  arc. 
They  are  sorry.  They  grieve  for  me.  They  are  your 
brethren  and  neighbors.  Your  hearts  are  one.  Do 
not  let  your  just  wrath  cause  you  to  lift  a  finger  in  vio 
lence  against  any  man.  God  has  all  this  business  in  his 
keeping,  and  He  will  repay  these  men  to  the  uttermost. 
In  a  few  days  these  wounds  will  heal,  and  I  will  be  well 
again,  and  ready  to  renew  my  work,  never  to  quit  it 
until  I  die.  If  you  love  me,  do  not  seek  to  revenge 


274  DOCTOR  HUGUE.T. 

It  was  wonderful  to  see  how  the  rage  faded  out  of 
their  dark  faces  as  I  appealed  to  their  better  natures; 
and  they  filed  out,  their  voices  thick  with  sobs,  mutter 
ing,  "  God  bless  you!" 

And  day  after  day,  and  all  night  long,  they  kept 
watch  and  ward  around  me,  lest  my  enemies  should 
renew  their  assault. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

I   HEAR   BAD    NEWS. 

"  Yet  the  first  bringer  of  unwelcome  news 
Hath  but  a  losing  office,  and  his  tongue 
Sounds,  ever  after,  as  a  sullen  bell, 
Remembered  knolling  a  departed  friend. " 

— 2  Henry  IV.,  i.  /. 

THE  news  of  the  attack  upon  me  spread  far  and  wide, 
and  provoked  universal  indignation.  The  Colonel 
and  his  sons  were  fierce.  Miss  Mary  and  Abigail  came 
and  offered  to  assist  in  nursing  me,  but  I  told  them  I 
needed  no  assistance,  beyond  the  soothing  lotions  which 
the  doctor  had  prescribed.  I  was  soon  sufficiently  re 
covered  to  be  up  again,  and  the  fourth  night  after  the 
attack  I  was  able  to  meet  my  flock  in  the  school-room. 
An  immense  crowd  greeted  me  and  gave  me  a  perfect 
ovation.  The  women  especially  were  very  emotional 
and  received  me  with  wet  eyes. 

I  counseled  peace.  I  told  them  the  assault  upon  me 
was  made  by  some  of  the  foolish,  dissipated  young  men 
of  the  vicinity,  with  intent  to  drive  me  away;  and  I 
hoped,  when  they  saw  that  it  was  impossible,  they 
would  look  into  the  matter,  and  become  satisfied  that  I 
was  really  doing  good  to  all  the  people,  and  give  up 
their  unreasonable  hostility  to  the  civilizing  influences 

which  I  had  invoked.     I  said  I  did  not  propose  topros- 

375 


076  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

ecute  any  of  them,  although  I  knew  the  names  of  some 
of  my  assailants,  despite  their  masks. 

Ben,  who  had  been  from  the  first  one  of  my  most 
devoted  night-scholars,  and  was  making  excellent 
progress,  told  me  that  the  morning  of  the  attack  on  me 
his  new  master  had  been  brought  home  by  the  coach 
man,  near  day-break,  very  drunk  and  in  a  terribly  bad 
temper.  And  he  also  told  me  something  which  set  me 
to  thinking,  namely,  that  Buryhill  had  twice  been  at 
the  house,  and  had  held  long  interviews  with  the  so- 
called  Doctor  Huguet.  I  knew  that  Buryhill  had  no 
natural  affiliation  with  such  a  creature  as  Ben's  master, 
and  it  augured  no  good  for  me  that  these  two  enemies 
of  mine  had  found  each  other  out.  I  knew  that  what 
the  brutal  and  shallow  mind  of  Sam  Johnsing  lacked 
the  cunning  villainy  of  Buryhill  would  supply.  It  was 
a  formidable  combination.  But  what  did  I  care?  Death 
would  only  release  me  from  hopelessness.  As  the  days 
and  weeks  and  months  sped  on,  and  left  me  still  under 
the  dreadful  spell,  I  had  lost  heart.  I  began  to  fear 
that  God  had  forgotten  me.  I  should  not  take  my  own 
life,  so  long  as  there  was  any  good  to  do  on  earth,  but 
I  should  not  shrink  from  death.  Let  the  blow  fall  when 
it  would,  I  was  ready  for  it. 

Although  my  back  still  smarted  and  stung,  I  delivered 
my  address  as  usual,  to  an  audience  more  than  ever  in 
sympathy  with  every  word  I  said.  The  negroes  fairly 
worshiped  me.  Had  I  not  suffered  agony  and  shed 
my  blood  for  them?  I  was,  indeed,  the  Angel  Gabriel, 
or  Moses,  or  Abraham,  or  John  the  Baptist,  or  all  of 
these  rolled  into  one.  I  was  the  perpetual  miracle 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

which  had  come  out  of  the  wretched  carcass  of  Sam 
Johnsing. 

At  the  close  of  the  exercises  Colonel  Ruddiman  and 
the  young  ladies  accompanied  me  into  my  little  room. 
The  Colonel  told  me  that  the  District  Court  met  the 

next  day  but  one  in  C .  He  would  probably  be 

foreman  of  the  grand  jury,  and  several  of  his  neigh 
bors  were  members  of  it,  and  they  had  resolved,  in 
view  of  the  foul  attack  made  on  me,  to  bring  in  an 
indictment  against  Mother  Bindell  for  keeping  a  dis 
orderly  house,  send  her  to  prison  and  close  up  the 
filthy  den.  There  would  be  a  big  fight  over  it;  but 
the  respectable  part  of  the  community  were  determined 
that  the  influences  which  were  corrupting  and  ruining 
the  young  men  of  the  neighborhood  must  cease;  and 
if  they  could  not  do  it  by  the  peaceable  processes  of 
law  they  were  determined  to  do  it  by  force — yes,  if 
they  had  to  burn  Mother  Bindell's  foul  habitation 
over  her  villainous  old  head. 

Things  were  evidently  drawing  toward  a  culmina 
tion.  As  I  looked  out  of  my  window,  before  going  to 
bed,  I  saw  my  faithful  body-guard  of  black  men,  with 
guns  on  their  shoulders,  marching  up  and  down  in  the 
moonlight,  keeping  guard  over  their  beloved  teacher. 

But  the  next  day  came  the  saddest  surprise  of  all. 

It  was  about  five  o'clock.  I  was  sitting  at  the  door 
of  the  barn  reading,  when,  from  a  cloud  of  dust  in  the 
distance,  I  saw  a  horseman  emerge,  riding  furiously. 
As  he  drew  nearer  I  saw  that  it  was  Colonel  Ruddi 
man. 


278  DOC  TOR  HUG  UE  T. 

I  rose  to  meet  him.  He  was  greatly  excited.  His 
face  was  pale  and  he  was  covered  with  dust. 

"  What  is  the  matter,  Colonel?"  I  cried,  thinking  of 
Mary,  and  my  heart  in  my  mouth. 

"  Abigail  is  gone  !  "  he  replied. 

"  Abigail  gone!  "  I  exclaimed.     "  How?     Where?  " 

"  We  don't  know.  Mary  sent  her,  this  morning, 
with  a  delicacy  she  had  prepared  for  Mrs.  Braynton, 
who  has  been  sick  for  some  time.  She  was  to  have  re 
turned  at  once.  The  Braynton  house,  you  know,  is  only 
about  a  mile  from  ours.  She  did  not  come  back.  We 
thought  nothing  of  it,  supposing  she  had  stayed  to 
talk  to  Mrs.  Braynton.  But,  at  noon,  one  of  the  field 
hands,  passing  through  a  piece  of  woods,  between  out 
house  and  Capt.  Braynton's,  found,  on  the  roadside, 
her  hat  and  a  torn  fragment  of  her  dress,  while  the 
ground  showed  marks  of  a  struggle  and  the  tracks  of 
several  feet.  I  at  once  started  every  one  out  to  search 
for  her.  They  did  not  find  her,  but  they  discovered 
traces  of  a  carriage  and  horses,  not  far  from  where  the 
hat  was  found.  She  had  evidently  been  carried  off. 
1  am  on  my  way  to  town  to  notify  the  police;  for  in  all 
probability  the  carriage  was  driven  to  C . " 

"  Do  you  suspect  any  one?"  I  asked. 

"  No,"  he  said. 
Had  she  any  lovers?" 

"  None  that  we  know  of." 

'  Then  you  did  not  know  that  the  so-called  Doctor 
Huguet  has  been  following  her  up,  and  offered  her  mar 
riage  the  other  day,  and  she  refused  him." 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


279 


"  No,"  replied  the  Colonel,  very  much  surprised; 
"  that  is  the  first  I  have  heard  of  it,  or  Mary  either." 

"  Then  there  is  where  you  are  to  look,"  I  said.  "  Go 
to  his  house  —  or,  rather,  my  house  —  in  town;  and 
also  ransack  Mother  Bindell's.  The  villain  has  un 
doubtedly  abducted  the  poor  girl." 

The  Colonel  drove  off  hurriedly. 

And  so  the  unhappy  Abigail  had  made  me  the  con 
fidant  of  secrets  which  she  would  not  entrust  even  to 
Mary.  What  did  it  mean? 

I  was  greatly  distressed. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

THE   PLOT  THICKENS. 

"  That  night  a  child  might  understand 
The  de'il  had  business  on  his  hand. " 

—  Sterns. 

THE  whole  country  was  aroused  and  searching  for 
Abigail.  The  poor  girl  was  greatly  beloved  by 
all  who  knew  her,  black  and  white.  She  was  so  ami 
able,  and  modest,  and  beautiful,  that  she  had  no  enemies 
among  rich  or  poor.  Her  abduction,  coming  upon  the 
heels  of  the  midnight  attack  upon  myself,  had  aroused 
the  whole  population  to  a  high  pitch  of  indignation; 
and  the  young  prodigals  and  lechers,  who  were  sup 
posed  to  be  responsible  for  both  acts,  kept  out  of  the 
way,  at  least  in  day-time,  of  the  respectable  people. 
Colonel  Ruddiman  and  his  friends  had  visited  my  house 

in   C ,  but  Ben  assured  them    that  she   was   not 

there,  and  that  his  master  had  not  been  at  home  for 
several  days.  Report  said  that  he  and  Buryhill  had 
been  seen  together  at  the  latter's  house.  A  party  had 
also  visited  Mother  Bindell's,  and  had  searched  the 
house  from  cellar  to  garret,  without  finding  any  clew 
of  the  missing  girl. 

Then  came  the  news  that  Mother  Bindell  had  been 
indicted  and  arrested  for  keeping  a  disorderly  house, 
and  that  Harry  Sanders  and  another  wealthy  young 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  28l 

reprobate  had  gone  upon  her  bond  to  appear  and 
stand  her  trial,  and  she  had  been  released  and  had 
gone  back  to  her  vile  home.  Buryhill  had  appeared  as 
her  attorney,  employed,  it  was  said,  by  Doctor  Huguet. 
The  young  men  were  loud  in  their  threats  against 
Colonel  Ruddiman  and  all  those  who  had  taken  part  in 
the  attempt  to  break  up  their  rendezvous,  and  the 
vicious  part  of  the  community  buzzed  and  hummed  and 
swarmed  like  a  disturbed  wasps'  nest.  There  was  evi 
dently  some  directing  intelligence  behind  the  scenes, 
encouraging  them  and  making  them  bold  and  insolent. 
It  looked  as  if  a  collision  was  about  to  occur  between 
the  respectable  and  the  profligate  elements  of  society. 
The  saloons  were  full  of  wrangling,  swearing  crowds, 
and  the  obsequious  landlords  smiled  and  smiled,  as 
they  filled  the  glasses  and  pushed  them  over  the  coun 
ters  for  the  endless  strings  of  thirsty  customers.  Every 

disreputable  resort  in  C regarded  the   indictment 

of  Mother  Bindell  as  a  threat  against  itself,  and  the 
excitement  was  correspondingly  great.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  white  planters  were  banding  together  and 
arming  themselves,  and  riding  hither  and  thither  ;  they 
were  old  soldiers,  who  did  not  talk  much,  whose  bite 
was  always  worse  than  their  bark;  —  men  upon  whom 
danger  acted  like  strong  drink,  stimulating  their  facul 
ties;  and  who  had  not  forgotten  the  smell  of  gunpow 
der  in  their  nostrils  since  the  days  when  they  rode, 
hungry  and  half-clad,  through  fen  and  forest,  in  defense 
of  their  principles.  Even  the  negroes  were  profoundly 
disturbed  ;  but  they  were  generally  without  weapons 
and  lacked  leaders. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

FLAME  AND  DEATH. 

"  Farewell !  I  know  the  next  news  that  they  bring 
Will  be  my  death  ;  and  welcome  shall  it  be : 
To  wretched  men  death  is  felicity." 

— Edward  II.  (Marlowe), 

I  FEEL  certain  that  my  hour  draws  near. 
Last  night  I  dispensed  with  my  usual  lecture.  I 
was  too  much  distressed  at  the  sad  news  of  Abigail's 
disappearance  to  talk  to  the  multitude,  and  they  were 
too  much  wrought  up  over  the  rumors  that  floated 
everywhere  to  give  me  their  usual  attention.  They 
gathered  in  knots  and  talked  in  whispers,  and  a  great 
many  remained  around  the  barn  until  morning. 

I  know  that  some  great  event  is  about  to  happen  to 
me.  What  it  is  I  cannot  tell.  How  do  I  know  it  ? 

I  have  seen  Him  again  f 

Yes.  Last  night  I  closed  down  the  curtains  to  keep 
out  the  moonlight,  bright  almost  as  day,  and  I  soon 
fell  asleep.  How  long  I  slept  I  have  no  means  of 
knowing.  I  awakened  with  a  great  start,  my  heart 
beating  violently  and  the  sweat  breaking  out  from 
every  pore.  What  was  it  that  filled  the  room  ? 
Moonlight?  No;  it  was  the  same  soft,  hazy 'lumin 
osity  I  had  beheld  once  before — a  substance  rather  than 
a  light.  Where  the  moonshine  crept  in,  in  streaks, 

beside  the  closed  curtains,  and  touched  it,  the  moon's 

382 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


283 


rays  appeared  sepulchrally  white  compared  with  the 
warm  glow  which  filled  the  chamber.  And  then,  under 
my  astounded  eyes,  it  began  to  repeat  what  I  had  seen 
before.  It  gathered  itself  together  against  the  farther 
side  of  the  room,  brightening  as  it  receded,  and  then, 
awe-struck  and  terrified,  I  beheld  the  central  light 
forming  itself  slowly  into  that  same  grand,  marvelous 
countenance  — 

THE  FACE  OF  CHRIST. 

That  unutterable,  that  indescribable  face  ! 

But  the  threat  had  gone  out  of  the  great  thought 
ful,  pitiful  eyes  ;  and  the  mouth,  the  sweet  mouth, 
smiled  upon  me.  Yes  !  Blessed  be  God  !  It  smiled 
upon  me  !  Upon  me,  the  most  wretched  of  men  ;  the 
poor,  unhappy,  broken-hearted  negro.  And  then  a 
dark  shadow,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  crept  around  the 
luminous  head,  and  the  shadow  grew  and  expanded,  not 
suppressing  the  light,  but  filled  with  the  light,  and  yet  a 
darkness  painted  en  the  light;  and  still  it  grew  until  it 
spread  far  beyond  the  narrow  boundaries  of  my  cham 
ber  into  infinitude  ;  and  then  it  began  to  resolve  itself 
into  small  forms  —  into  millions  of  faces  —  faces  brown, 
yellow,  pale,  black,  but  none  of  them  white  ;  faces  of 
men,  women  and  children  ;  of  the  young  and  the  old  ; 
of  the  gray-haired  grandsire  and  the  little  infant  — 
millions  upon  millions  of  faces — and  every  face  looked 
into  mine  and  smiled  upon  me  ! 

And  the  great  eyes  glanced  around  at  the  innumer 
able  multitude,  and  said  : 

"  WHOSOEVER  DEALETH  MERCIFULLY  WITH  THE 


284  DOCTOR  HUGUET, 

LEAST  OF   THESE  IS   NUMBERED  AMONG   THE  BELOVED 
OF  GOD." 

And  as  he  spoke  the  vision  began  to  fade  away,  and 
in  a  little  while  it  was  gone,  and  I  was  alone  in  the 
darkened  chamber.  And  again,  methought,  I  heard 
a  murmur,  like  the  rustle  of  a  vast  host  of  soft  wings; 
and  then  followed  faint,  delicious,  unearthly  music,  that 
faded  away  in  the  distance,  and  died  out  in  silence. 

I  know  that  my  release  is  at  hand. 

But  how  will  it  come  to  me  ?  Shall  it  be  through 
the  gates  of  death  ?  Shall  I  part  from  my  beloved  for 
ever  ?  Do  spirits  know  each  other  beyond  the  grave  ? 

And  I  fell  upon  my  knees  and  prayed  fervently  to 
God,  that,  after  all  my  months  of  agony,  He  would  not 
send  me  down  to  the  dark  grave,  but  would  give  me 
back  the  best  and  noblest  of  women. 

This  morning  I  taught  my  school  of  little  ones,  but 
my  thoughts  were  far  away. 

At  noon  came  the  news  that  Abigail  had  returned 
home.  Nothing  more  than  that.  She  had  been  seen 
to  pass  along  the  road  and  enter  the  Ruddiman  house. 

It  was  four  o'clock.  I  was  reading.  A  shadow  fell 
upon  me.  I  looked  up. 

It  was  Abigail! 

My  God,  what  a  change! 

The  fair  face  was  pallid  and  swollen  and  distorted; 
the'  mouth  rigid  and  set;  and  the  eyes,  in  which  you 
could  not  discern  the  pupils,  wore  a  baleful  expression, 
hard,  terrible,  sullen,  threatening. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET,  285 

I  rose  and  took  her  in  my  arms.  I  kissed  her.  I 
understood  it  all.  I  could  only  cry  : 

"  My  poor,  poor,  dear,  dear  Abigail  !  " 

I  offered  her  refreshments.  I  begged  her  to  be 
seated.  No;  she  stood  there  rigid,  tearless. 

"  Abigail,"  I  said,  "  where  were  you  ?  " 

In  a  strange  voice,  that  sounded  husky  and  far  away, 
she  replied  : 

"  In  the  Bindell  barn,  bound,  gagged  and  covered  with 
hay,  while  they  ransacked  the  house  for  me." 

"  Where  are  you  going  ?  " 

"  I  came  to  bid  you  farewell,"  she  said,  in  the  same 
impassive  way,  "for  I  loved  you — loved  you  well 
enough  to  have  married  you,  despite  that  black  skin. 
It  is  over  now.  Good-by.  " 

"  No,  no;  you  must  not  go,"  I  cried,  holding  her 
hands,  "  you  are  not  to  blame  for  the  sin  of  others. 
Your  soul  is  pure,  pure  as  the  mountain  snow." 

The  expression  of  bitterness  deepened  around  her 
mouth  as  she  slowly  hissed  out: 

'  There  was  a  fraction  of  negro  blood  in  my  veins, 
and  that  justified  the  white  scoundrels  in  carrying  me 
off,  to  become  the  plaything  of  their  lust.  My  seven- 
eighths  of  white  blood  was  nothing.  They  would  never 
have  dared  such  villainy  with  a  girl  of  pure  white  an 
cestry.  I  suppose  it  is  all  right  in  the  eyes  of  God. 
Society  will  pardon  them.  No  one  will  pity  the  oc 
toroon  !  " 

"  No,  no,  Abigail,"  I  cried,  "  your  friends  love  you 
deeply,  warmly;  they  honor  you.  I  love  you.  I  honor 
you.  I  have  seen  the  Christ  again!  I  am  forgiven. 


286  DOCTOR  IIUGUET. 

The  day  of  my  tribulation  is  almost  at  an  end.  We 
will  all  be  happy  together  yet.  I  will  carry  out  my 
first  promise  to  you.  You  shall  go  where  all  taint  and 
discredit  shall  fall  from  you.  I  will  kill  the  man  who 
breathes  a  word  against  your  good  name.  You  live 
in  our  hearts,  and  our  arms  shall  surround  you  for 
ever." 

Her  face  relaxed  and  softened,  but  she  cried  out: 
"  No,  no;    I    must    go.      I   am   polluted,   disgraced, 
ruined;  an  unworthy  thing  —  fit  only  to  be  cast  out 

on  the  dung-hills  of  the  world — a  poor  negro  — 
a  " 

But  she  could  not  speak  the  word. 

"Abigail,"  I  said,  "  stay  here  with  me  until  Colonel 
Ruddiman  comes.  He  will,  I  think,  be  at  the  lecture 
to-night." 

"  No,"  she  said;  "  I  have  a  duty  to  perform.  I  must 
go.  If  you  are  liberated  and  I  live,  I  may  come  back- 
to  you.  But  I  must  go  now." 

I  had  no  right  to  detain  her.  I  did  not  know  her 
purpose.  I  kissed  her  as  I  might  have  kissed  my  own 
child,  and  wrung  her  hand,  and  parted  from  her,  alas! 
forever. 

I  never  saw  her  again  alive,  save  once,  and  then  but 
for  a  moment,  in  the  midst  of  a  dreadful  scene. 

The  time  had  come  for  my  lecture. 
There  was  a  great  multitude  around  me  as  I  stood 
up  to  speak. 

"  My  friends,"   I  said,  "  there  is  something  within 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  287 

me  tells  me  that  I  shall  never  address  you  again  in  this 
flesh  —  in  this  school-house." 

Sobs  broke  out  all  over  the  room,  and  hundreds 
wept  aloud.  My  own  voice  choked,  and  I  could  scarcely 
proceed. 

"  My  friends,"  I  continued,  "  let  us  not  grieve  over 
anything  the  future  may  bring  forth.  We  are  all  in  the 
hands  of  God,  and  He  who  made  us  can  neither  forget 
nor  forsake  us.  We  may  die,  but  we  do  not  pass  out 
of  His  kingdom.  Wherever  we  go,  God  is  there  —  for 
He  is  everywhere. 

"  The  poet  tells  us  that  '  the  voices  of  dying  men 
enforce  attention  like  deep  harmony.'  My  premoni 
tions  assure  me  that  from  the  brink  of  the  grave  I  speak 
now  unto  you;  and  I  would  have  you  treasure  up  my 
words  as  long  as  you  live,  for  they  are  the  words  of 
one  who  loves  you,  who  has  toiled  for  you,  and  has 
suffered  for  you. 

"We  live  in  troubled  times.  Storm  and  danger 
brood  over  us.  Violence  and  rapine — perhaps  death 
—  are  around  us.  Crime  is  bursting  out  like  a  volcanic 
ebullition,  hot  with  the  flames  of  hell. 

"  To  the  white  race  I  would  preach  mercy  and 
charity.  I  ask  them  to  give  the  humblest  and  low 
liest  a  chance  in  the  great,  fierce  battle  of  life.  Do 
not  trample  on  the  man  who  is  down. 

"  To  the  black  race  I  would  preach  patience  and 
wisdom.  The  negro's  remedy  is  not  in  violence.  Six 
millions  cannot  go  to  war  with  sixty  millions.  He  who 
steps  outside  the  law  invokes  all  the  overwhelming 
powers  of  government  upon  his  own  head,  and  they 


288  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

crush  him.  The  prejudices  of  race  are  not  to  be  dissi 
pated  by  grouping  the  people  into  the  separations  of 
race-politics.  The  curse  of  our  land  is  party  slavery. 
It  is  worse  for  the  negro  than  the  old  physical  slavery. 
God  have  mercy  on  the  man  who  permits  another  to 
do  his  thinking. 

"  '  First  slave  to  words,  then  vassal  to  a  name, 
Then  dupe  of  party;  child  and  man  the  same: 
Bounded  by  nature,  narrowed  still  by  art, 
A  trifling  head  and  a  contracted  heart.' 

"  The  race,  whatever  its  color,  which  gives  itself 
over  unanimously  and  unconditionally  to  any  one 
political  party,  incurs  the  hatred  of  the  organization  it 
opposes  and  the  contempt  of  the  organization  it  serves. 
The  one  has  nothing  to  hope  from  it;  the  other  has 
nothing  to  fear  from  it.  The  one  feels  that  it 
can  never  gain  it;  the  other  that  it  can  never  lose  it. 
The  former  persecutes  the  race  for  their  unreasoning 
hostility;  -the  other  despises  them  for  their  unreasoning 
fidelity.  The  first  feels  that  it  cannot  placate  them  by 
doing  them  justice;  the  other  that  they  will  not  revolt 
under  any  amount  of  injustice.  They  become  a  target 
for  the  abuse  of  all  men;  a  wall  behind  which  scoundrels 
hide  to  steal;  a  faction  without  a  friend  or  an  advocate. 

"  The  perpetual  dread  of  the  South  is  a  race  war. 
When  the  negroes  ail  mass  themselves  together,  in  solid 
political  phalanx,  it  looks,  to  the  whites,  like  a  black 
army  ready  to  march  to  battle.  Every  passion  in  the 
white  man's  breast  rises  at  the  challenge,  ready  for  the 
conflict;  —  race,  home,  wife,  children,  prosperity,  self- 
government,  liberty,  shriek  in  his  ears  their  clamorous 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET.  289 

appeals  for  protection.  He  seizes  his  rifle, —  he  marches, 
—  he  murders. 

"  What  is  the  remedy? 

"  Let  the  black  incii  break  ranks!  Let  them  dissolve 
into  the  community.  Let  them  divide  politically  on 
other  lines  than  those  of  color.  Great  economic  ques 
tions  are  arising  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  old 
struggles.  A  tidal  wave  —  a  great  passionate  cry  for 
justice,  for  prosperity,  for  liberation  from  the  plun 
derers,  for  each  man's  share  of  happiness  and  the  fruits 
of  civilization  —  sweeps,  high-mounting,  through  the 
hearts  and  brains  of  the  whites  of  the  South.  They 
are  gathering  in  a  vast  army,  with  principles  for  ban 
ners  and  ballots  for  weapons.  The  black  man's  inter 
ests  are  the  same  as  theirs.  He  needs  prosperity, 
growth,  opportunity,  happiness.  So  do  they.  He 
wants  to  see  the  robbers  struck  down.  So  do  they. 
He  desires  all  that  civilization  can  give  him  —  all  that 
belongs  to  him.  So  do  they.  Will  he  join  with  his 
white  brethren  to  rescue  the  land  from  poverty  and 
ruin?  Or  will  he  stand  afar  off,  in  solid,  unreasoning, 
sullen,  threatening  array,  to  perpetuate  the  race- 
prejudices  which  are  destroying  him?  When  he  breaks 
his  own  ranks  and  moves,  in  solid  column,  with  part,  at 
least,  of  his  white  friends  and  neighbors,  they  will  per 
ceive  that  his  ballots  are  bullets,  as  potent  as  their  own 
to  kill  injustice.  Their  own  interests  will  compel  them 
to  defend  his  rights.  The  day  of  persecution  and  cru 
elty  will  end.  In  every  intelligent  white  man  the  in 
telligent  black  man  will  find  a  defender;  and  the  reign 
of  peace  and  love  and  brotherhood  will  begin  in  the 


290  DOCTOR  HUCUET. 

South,  yea,  in  the  whole  land.  And  if  the  negro  does 
not  then  rise  to  the  topmost  heights  of  culture  and 
education  and  material  prosperity,  it  will  be  his  own 
fault. 

"  I  pray  God  that  the  hearts  of  this  congregation 
may  be  joined  together,  black  and  white,  in  bands  of 
mutual  love  and  charity  that  shall  endure  through  all 
trials  and  tribulations.  Let  no  race  hatreds  divide 
you.  Remember  that  you  are  children  of  one  father; 
that  'he  made  of  one  blood  all  the  races  of  men  that 
dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth;'  that  Christ  died  on  the 
cross,  not  for  a  particular  complexion,  but  for  all  men; 
that  his  religion  is  not  the  religion  of  a  race,  but  of 
mankind.  In  the  name  of  God  and  God's  charity ' 

The  sentence  was  never  finished.  There  was  a  rattle 
of  fire-arms  through  the  doors  and  windows.  Men 
threw  up  their  arms  and  screamed  and  fell.  There  was 
uproar  and  confusion.  A  dreadful  panic  came  upon 
all,  and  they  rushed  to  escape.  My  God!  what  a  horri 
ble  scene  followed  !  The  whites  were  allowed  to  depart 
unharmed,  but  the  negroes,  men,  women,  and  even 
children,  were  shot  down  as  they  fled,  until  they  lay 
scattered  around,  inside  and  outside  the  building,  in 
groups,  dead  and  dying,  groaning  and  shrieking  for 
mercy. 

I  stood  there  immovable. 

"  Yes,"  I  said  quietly  to  myself,  "  it  is  through  the 
gates  of  death." 

The  place  grew  suddenly  lighter.  The  miscreants 
had  fired  the  building,  and  the  red  flames  and  dense 
smoke  rose  toward  the  heavens. 


DOCTOR  IfUGUET. 


291 


Then  I  felt  myself  seized  by  many  hands;  I  was 
dragged  out  of  doors.  As  I  was  haled  along  I  saw 
that  there  were  a  hundred  or  more  around  me,  all 
wearing  white  masks.  But  among  them  I  saw  the 
chicken-thief;  and  in  the  background  a  figure  was  skulk 
ing,  evidently  giving  orders,  whom  I  recognized,  by  his 
shape  and  size,  as  Buryhill. 

I  was  under  a  tree.  The  conflagration  lighted  up 
the  whole  scene  with  a  blood-red  glare  that  drowned 
the  white  moonlight.  The  screams  of  the  wounded  in 
the  barn,  as  the  fire  reached  them,  were  dreadful  to 
hear.  The  mob  was  wild  with  rage.  All  their  eyes  were 
centered  on  me.  My  hour  had  come.  No  power  on 
earth  could  save  me.  I  knew  it. 

Quick!  the  rope!"  cried  a  voice  of  command. 

One  end  was  thrown  over  a  projecting  limb;  the 
noose  was  around  my  neck,  and  a  score  of  men  strug 
gled  for  the  privilege  of  seizing  hold  of  it. 

"  Up  with  him!     Up  with  him!" 

The  rope  tightened  painfully  and  cut  deep  into  the 
flesh  as  my  great  weight  began  to  rise  from  the  ground. 
It  had  slipped  to  the  back  of  my  neck.  I  was  choking, 
but  still  conscious.  The  whole  dome  of  my  brain  was 
alive  with  spouting  cataracts  of  sparks,  of  a  hundred 
colors,  veritable  rainbows  of  fire.  My  eyes  seemed  to 
be  pressed  out  of  my  head. 

"Give  it  to  him!"  cried  some  one,  and  I  heard 
the  rattle  of  pistols,  and  felt  stinging  sensations  in 
different  parts  of  my  body  as  the  bullets  struck  me. 

Doctor  Huguet  stood  directly  in  front  of  me,  and 
but  a  few  paces  distant.  With  my  head  bent  down, 


292 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


by  the  position  of  the  rope,  I  looked  straight  at  him. 
His  mask  had  fallen  off,  and  his  face  wore  a  delighted, 
fiendish,  devilish  expression.  He  had  a  pistol  in  his 
hand;  he  raised  it  slowly  and  took  deliberate  aim  at 
my  heart.  I  saw  the  flash.  I  felt  a  sharp  blow  on 
my  breast.  In  the  same  instant  a  white  figure  —  a 
woman  —  darted  out  from  the  background  pf  the 
crowd,  rushed  swiftly  forward  and  smote  him  fiercely 
with  a  glittering  weapon.  He  fell.  And  then  all  was 
darkness. 


CHAPTER   XL. 

BORN   AGAIN. 

"  Some  safer  world  in  depths  of  woods  embraced, 
Some  happier  island  in  the  watery  waste, 
Where  slaves  once  more  their  native  land  behold, 
No  fiends  torment,  no  Christians  thirst  for  gold." 

—  Pope. 

OH,  how  painful  it  is  to  exist.  Pricking,  stinging 
sensations  tingle  through  every  nerve  ;  a  horri 
ble  weight  is  upon  my  chest  ;  violent  pains  dart 
through  my  head  ;  my  eyes  are  throbbing  and  burning. 

Is  this  the  world  beyond  the  grave  ?  Better  ob 
livion  than  such  torments. 

What  am  I  ?     A  spirit  damned  ? 

Can  this  be  hell  ?  Into  what  variety  of  untried  be 
ing  have  I  fallen  ? 

I  hear  a  voice  speaking;-  it  sounds  a  great  ways  off, 
though  it  is  near  at  hand  : 

"  Keep  the  windows  darkened,  and  these  cold  cloths 
to  his  head.  I  will  return  in  an  hour." 

And  a  voice  replied: 

"  All  right,  sah  ;   I'll  'tend  to  it." 

It  is  the  voice  of  Ben  !  I  would  know  it  among  ten 
thousand  ! 

"  My  God  !  Where  am  I  ?  " 

Something  was  over  my  eyes.  It  was  a  wet  bandage. 
I  pushed  it  up  and  saw  Ben  ! 

893 


294  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

I  looked  around  me. 

/  was  in  my  oivn  bed-room  at  C / 

I  looked  at  my  hands. 

My  God  !  I  am  back  in  my  own  body  ! 

Glory  be  to  God  !     Glory  be  to  God  forever! 

And  I  shouted  aloud. 

I  understood  it  all  in  a  moment. 

In  the  very  instant  of  death  the  transference  of 
souls  had  taken  place,  and  the  spirit  of  the  chicken- 
thief  had  passed  to  its  dread  account,  flying  before  the 
bullet  from  his  own  pistol  ! 

He  had  killed  himself!  He  had  committed  suicide! 
And  the  merciful  Christ  had  restored  me  to  my  own  — 
to  my  home,  to  my  name,  to  my  body,  and  to  my  love ! 

And  Ben  stood  watching  me  obsequiously,  but  with 
hate  glittering  in  his  small,  black  eyes. 

"  Ben,  Ben  !"  I  cried,  opening  wide  my  arms. 
"  Don't  you  know  me?  Don't  you  know  your  old 
friend  !  I  have  come  back.  I  am  Doctor  Huguet 
indeed  !  " 

There  was  no  mistaking  'the  manner,  the  words,  the 
sentiment,  the  enthusiasm  !  And  in  an  instant  my 
black  servant  was  locked  in  my  arms,  in  one  long, 
fervent  embrace. 

"  Oh,  massa,  massa  !  "  he  cried,  the  big  tears  stream 
ing  down  his  face,  "  I  knows  you!  I  knows  you!  You 

has  come  back!  And  that  d -cl  nigger  is  gone  for- 

eber!  Bress  de  Lord!  Bress  de  Lord  !  " 

"  Quick,  Ben,  quick,"  I  said,  "  bring  me  pen,  ink 
and  paper.  Have  the  fastest  horse  in  the  stable  sad- 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


295 


died.  I  must  write  to  Mary.  Have  a  messenger 
ready  to  take  it  at  once. " 

"  Won't  you  hurt  yourself,  massa  ?  You  are  cut, 
you  know,  but  de  doctor  said  it  was  only  a  flesh  woun'. 
But  you  must  be  car'ful." 

"  Oh,  I  am  strong,  Ben!  A  thousand  lives  are 
throbbing  in  my  veins.  Quick,  the  paper!  Mary 
must  not  have  another  hour  of  misery." 

What  I  wrote  I  do  not  remember.  It  was  one  long, 
passionate  burst  of  delight  and  love  and  hope.  The 
very  words  burned  with  kisses,  and  the  sentences  were 
like  embraces.  My  soul  flowed  out  from  my  pen  in 
ecstatic  raptures.  It  cried:  "  Come  to  me,  come  to 
me,  come  to  me!  The  world  is  ours  and  made  for  us 
alone;  it  is  ours  forever  !  " 

"  Quick,  Ben,  quick,  the  messenger!  He  must 
bring  her  back  with  him  !  "  . 

And  when  Ben  took  the  letter  out  of  my  hands  I 
fell  back  exhausted. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

VENGEANCE. 

"  There's  danger  in  the  lion's  wrath, 
Destruction  in  the  tiger's  jaw  ; 
But  worse  than  death  to  cross  the  path 
Of  man,  when  passion  is  his  law. 
Woe,  woe  to  those  who  strive  to  light 
The  torch  of  truth  by  passion's  fire! 
It  guides  not;  it  but  glares  through  night 
To  kindle  freedom's  funeral  pyre. " 

—  The  Song  of  the  Bell  (Schiller}. 

FAST  and  far,  that  fateful  night,  from  that  scene 
of  terror  and  horror  and  death,  lit  by  the  massed 
flames  that  towered  and  roared  to  the  skies,  rode  the 
messengers,  black  and  white.  From  house  to  house 
and  cabin  to  cabin  spread  the  dreadful  news  of  cruel 
crime.  Even  to  Colonel  Ruddiman's  distant  dwelling- 
place,  gloomy  from  Abigail's  fate,  came  the  awful 
tidings  with  which  her  name  was  mingled.  Then  was 
there  hurrying  in  hot  haste,  and  arming,  and  mounting 
and  speeding  of  messengers,  right  and  left,  to  summon 
those  who  still  slept  in  the  fair  moonlight,  unsuspicious 
that  death  and  flame  had  been  at  work  in  the  holy  calm 
of  that  peaceful  night.  And  then,  through  lane  and 
wood,  and  past  slumbering  field  and  copse  and  hedge 
and  homestead,  quick  thundering  on  galloping  feet, 

gathered  the  clans,   until  Col.    Ruddiman's    trampled 

396 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  297 

lawn  swarmed  with  armed  men.  Silent  and  grim  they 
were.  No  oaths  resounded.  They  spoke  in  whispers. 

And  stealing  along  the  narrow,  beaten  paths,  from 
white-washed  cabins,  came  dusky  figures  on  foot,  who 
joined  them,  bearing  guns  and  clubs  and  scythes — 
darkness  that  moved  like  shadows  in  the  shadows, 
portentous  in  their  silence,  dreadful  in  the  glare  of 
their  white  eye-balls. 

A  clustered  group  of  leaders  held  counsel  together, 
speaking  below  their  breaths  ;  and  then  all  rode  away, 
the  old  man  of  many  battles  at  their  head,  the  quick- 
footed  shadows  running  by  their  side,  swift  almost  as 
horses,  silent  as  the  moveless  trees.  A  ghostly,  speech 
less  cavalcade  it  was  ;  now  buried  in  the  dark  gloom 
of  the  overhanging  forest,  now  sweeping  out  into  the 
white  moonlight,  far  streaming  along  the  beaten,  sound 
ing  road.  An  instinct  told  every  man,  horseman  and 
footman,  what  their  destination  was,  though  no  one 
named  that  dark  den  of  infamy,  that  sink  of  sin,  where 
innocence  had  been  cruelly  slaughtered,  where  ruffians 
had  gathered  to  plot  rapine  and  murder  against  peaceful 
men  and  women  and  little  children. 

Fast  they  rode  and  fast  they  ran.  The  whole  night 
seemed  alive.  There  to  the  south  the  red  embers  of 
the  school-house  still  warmed  the  blushing  sky.  No 
one  slept ;  but  from  every  house  and  cabin,  white  and 
black,  young  and  old,  afoot  or  on  horseback,  the 
streams  of  life  swept  out,  like  rivulets,  down  every 
cross-road  and  narrow  lane,  to  join  the  rushing  torrent 
of  grim  and  silent  men  who  poured  down  to  the  red 
ocean  of  vengeance.  And  in  all  those  hearts  there  was 


298  DOCTOR  IIUGU&T. 

but  one  thought  —  Death!  And  no  man  turned  his 
head  aside  to  think  of  aught  else  than  —  Death.  With 
eyes  straight  forward  they  rode  on,  and  on,  and  on. 

"  Halt!  "  The  word  was  passed  in  whispers  along 
the  line;  and  there,  some  distance  ahead,  they  saw  a 
house  and  barn,  at  a  cross-road.  How  tenderly,  like 
a  mother's  love,  the  soft  moonlight  fell  upon  them,  and 
hid  the  traces  of  shabby  dilapidation.  How  sweetly 
the  whole  scene  slept  in  the  silence  of  the  night,  as  if 
under  the  smile  of  angels!  Oh,  merciful  Nature!  that 
covers  with  the  same  flowers  the  dust  of  the  assassin 
and  the  hero.  The  ruffians,  their  hands  still  bloody 
with  the  cruel  murder  of  defenseless  creatures,  men, 
women  and  little  harmless  children,  slept  the  sleep  of 
justified  righteousness,  and  the  kindly  night  threw  her 
mantle  of  peace  and  loveliness  over  their  foul  abode. 

But  Justice  and  Vengeance  are  at  hand  !  See  how 
the  cavalcade  separates.  Some  stand  still  ;  others 
move  on  ;  they  divide  to  the  right  and  to  the  left,  until 
the  sleeping  household  is  encircled  and  surrounded, 
and  behind  every  tree  and  fence  and  bush  rifles  are 
pointed,  concentering  on  the  doomed  house. 

But  look  !  A  gray  head  is  thrust  quickly  out  of  one 
of  the  windows.  The  old  cat  sleeps  lightly.  There  is 
an  exclamation  of  alarm.  Lights  are  lit  and  flash 
from  room  to  room,  and  the  forms  of  men  and  women- 
many  of  them  —  hurriedly  pass  and  repass  the  windows. 
The  whole  house  is  aroused.  They  know  their  danger. 

And  then  a  strong  voice  cries  out  : 

"  We  will  let  the  women  come  out.  We  make  war 
on  men  only." 


DOCTOR  IIUGUET 


299 


It  is  the  Colonel  who  speaks.  There  is  silence  ! 
The  lights  go  out.  They  are  consulting.  And  then 
the  front  door  flies  open,  and  a  motley  crew,  half- 
naked,  carrying  bundles  of  tawdry  finery  in  their  arms, 
rush  out,  terrified,  and  scuttle  away,  squawking,  to  the 
timber,  like  a  flock  of  foul  wild  geese. 

But  Mother  Bindell  comes  not  forth.  No  ;  the  fierce 
old  demon  is  seen  bearing  a  light  from  room  to  room, 
with  bottle  in  hand,  distributing  whisky  among  the 
men,  to  strengthen  them  for  the  fight.  And  then  the 
light  is  extinguished,  and  all  is  silence. 

The  same  strong  voice  speaks  out  again  : 

"  Are  you  ready  to  surrender  ?  " 

The  answer  is  a  volley  from  the  windows,  and  two 
men  fall  wounded. 

And  then,  with  a  great  rattling,  crackling  report, 
comes  the  reply,  and  the  house  is  encircled  by  a  wall 
of  fire. 

The  besieged  have  the  advantage:  they  are  sheltered 
and  in  the  darkness;  while  their  assailants  are  almost 
unprotected,  and  exposed,  in  the  white  glare  of  the  full 
moon,  to  be  picked  off  by  the  skilled  marksmen,  who 
do  not  waste  a  shot.  Several  of  the  attacking  party 
are  killed  and  many  wounded.  They  are  having  the 
worst  of  it.  But  still  the  fight  goes  on.  A  half  hour 
passes  —  a  half  hour  of  terrible  battle. 

Dr.  Magruder  and  Berrisford  are  with  those  who  are 
keeping  watch  over  the  back  part  of  the  building.  They 
are  sheltering  themselves  behind  the  old  barn  and  fir 
ing  as  opportunity  presents  itself. 

And  now  a  singular  thing  happens. 


300 


DOCTOR  h'UGUET. 


The  Doctor  notices  a  smell  of  burning  hay.  Men's 
senses  are  acute  at  such  a  time.  The  wall  of  the  old 
barn  is  full  of  cracks  and  crevices.  He  peers  through 
one  of  them.  There  is  a  light  within  the  barn. 

"  Berrisford,"  he  said  softly,  "  come  here.  What  do 
you  see  ?  " 

Hush  !  "  whispered  Berrisford.  "  It  is  white  !  "   And 
a  superstitious  thrill  ran  through  him. 

"  It  is  a  woman,"  said  the  Doctor;  "  I  see  her  more 
clearly  now,  through  the  smoke.  " 

"  What  is  she  doing  ?  "  whispered  Berrisford. 

"  She  has  kindled  a  fire  in  the  barn,  and  now  she  is 
tying  a  rope  around  a  great  mass  of  hay." 

"  By  heavens,"  said  Berrisford,  as  the  flames  flashed 
up;  "  she  has  stuck  a  pitchfork  into  it,  she  lights  it, 
she  lifts  it  up,  she  rushes  toward  the  door.  //  is 
Abigail !  " 

The  Doctor  sprang  forward  to  save  her  at  the  risk  of 
his  own  life.  He  was  too  late.  Out  through  the  open 
doorway,  right  toward  the  house,  across  that  hell  of 
flying  bullets,  into  the  very  jaws  of  death,  she  ran 
swiftly,  bearing  the  great  blazing,  roaring  mass,  high 
above  her  head,  like  a  banner. 

"  She  means  to  fire  the  house,"  said  Berrisford. 

Yes;  straight  to  the  back  door  she  ran,  and  flung 
down  her  burning  burden  against  it.  And  then  she 
began  to  walk  back,  as  calmly,  as  unconcernedly  as  if 
she  had  been  upon  a  quiet  country  road  near  her 
own  home.  But  she  had  proceeded  but  a  few  paces 
when  the  fire  of  the  defenders  of  the  house,  who  well 
understood  what  she  had  done,  was  concentrated  upon 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  ->Ql 

O 

her,  and  she  staggered  and  fell  backward  —  dead,  with 
a  smile  of  triumph  upon  her  face. 

And  then  the  door  flew  open,  and  a  gray-haired 
woman,  with  blazing  eyes  and  harpy  hands,  rushed  out, 
and  tried  to  scatter  and  stamp  the  burning  hay.  A 
dozen  rifles  cracked,  and  she  fell  headlong  among  the 
roaring  flames,  which  leaped  and  danced  and  roared 
above  her  —  exulting  over  her  as  a  thing  fit  only  to  be 
utterly  annihilated.  Door,  wall,  window,  cornice,  every 
thing  is  now  aflame,  and  the  fire-demon  grasps  and 
gnaws  and  devours,  until  the  whole  house  is  lashed  in 
its  red  and  mighty  arms;  and  every  board  —  reeking 
with  years  of  sin  and  shame  —  is  sucked  into  the  vortex 
of  the  horrible  destruction. 

And  now,  dimly  through  the  smoke,  begrimed  and 
bloody  figures  dart  suddenly  out,  as  if  to  escape.  But 
they  cross  not  the  dreadful  circle  around  the  conflagra 
tion.  Here  and  there,  illy-defined  heaps,  casting  black 
shadows  in  the  glare,  lie  upon  the  ground,  moveless. 
Lives  they  once  were,  loved  by  mothers;  now  they  are 
but  dust-heaps.  And,  like  an  evil  spirit,  that  exhausts 
itself  and  can  do  no  further  harm  to  man,  the  great  con 
flagration  pauses;  but  it  casts  down,  with  its  last  strength, 
walls  and  timbers  and  rafters  and  roof  into  the  red  furn 
ace  of  the  cellar,  where  the  coals  glow  portentously  — 
like  a  veritable  hell  —  where  stood  so  long  that  house 
of  hell. 

And  then  a  negro,  on  a  farm  horse,  without  a  saddle, 
rode  up  to  Colonel  Ruddiman. 

"  Massa!"  he  said,  "  dat  man,  de  Doctor,  what  Abi- 


3O2  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

gail  stabbed,  he's  not  dead.  Dey  said  he  was.  But  de 
knife  glanced  on  his  ribs,  and  he  am  alive. " 

"  Who  told  you  that?"  asked  the  Colonel. 

"  Ben  sent  me  word,"  said  the  other. 

"  Then, "said  the  Colonel,  "we  had  better  finish  this 
morning's  work.  I  want  five  men  to  accompany  me  to 

C .  The  rest  might  as  well  return  to  their  homes. 

Gentlemen,"  he  said  courteously,  raising  his  hat  to 
the  multitude,  who  had  gathered  around  him,  "  you 
have  done  a  good  work.  You  have  cleaned  out  a  foul 
nest.  You  have  revenged  the  murder  of  the  noblest 
man  in  this  world,  and  the  ruin  of  one  of  the  brav 
est  and  best  and  truest  women  that  ever  lived.  I  thank 
you  in  the  name  of  outraged  virtue  and  society.  Let 
us  now  disperse.  But  will  some  of  you  look  after  the 
dead  and  wounded?  And  will  you  make  a  litter  and 
carry  the  remains  of  poor  Abigail  to  my  house?  Let 
there  be  no  more  violence,  but  let  each  man  go  quietly 
to  his  home." 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

MY    GREAT    SORROW. 

"  Yet  now  despair  itself  is  mild, 

Even  as  the  winds  and  waters  are  ; 
I  could  lie  down,  like  a  tired  child, 
And  weep  away  the  life  of  care 
Which  I  have  borne,  and  yet  must  bear." 

—Shelley. 

«  DEN,"  I  said,  "  how  did  I  come  here?" 

L-J  "  Well,  you  see,  dey  tells  me  dat  dat  nigger, 
Sam  Johnsing,  who  had  your  body,  he  j'ined  with 
Buryhill  to  kill  you  and  burn  de  school-house;  you 
know  all  about  dat.  And  just  as  dey  swung  you  up, 
Abigail,  who  was  mos'  crazy,  she  run  out  and  struck 
Sam  wid  de  Colonel's  bowie-knife,  and  down  he 
drapped,  and  never  moved.  And  dey  all  thought  he 
was  gone  dead,  suah  ;  and  Harry  Sanders  he  gets  a 
carriage  and  brings  him  home.  And  den,  from  what 
you  tells  me,  just  as  you  died  your  soul  went  back  into 
your  own  body,  but  I  'spects  de  spell  was  on  you  yet, 
for  you  neber  stirred  nor  spoke  until  de  doctor  comes, 
and  he  feels  your  pulse  and  looks  at  your  breast,  and 
he  says,  says  he,  'He's  not  dead  —  he's  fainted;  he's 
got  'gestion  ob  blood  in  his  head.  It  am  only  a  flesh 
woun'.'  And  den  you  sits  up  in  de  bed  and  opens 
your  arms  and  cries,  'Ben,  Ben!'  and  den,  bress  de 

303 


304 


DOCTOR  Hl'GUET. 


Lord  !  I  knows  you  !  I  knows  you  !  But  I  tinks, 
massa,  you's  talkin'  too  much." 

"  No,  Ben,"  I  said,  "  I  am  feeling  much  better.  Joy 
has  cured  me.  I  think  I  will  get  up  and  dress  instead 
of  sitting  here  in  bed." 

There  was  a  clatter  of  horses'  hoofs  entering  the 
brick  path  that  led  to  the  house. 

"  Quick,  Ben,"  I  cried,  "  look  out  of  the  window, 
and  see  if  it  is  Miss  Mary." 

Ben  put  his  head  out  of  the  window. 

"  No,  sah,"  he  said;  "  it's  Colonel  Ruddiman  and 
Doctor  Magruder,  and  two  or  three  oder  white  gem- 
men.',' 

"  Show  them  up,  Ben,"  I  cried;  "  I  am  so  glad  to  see 
them." 

Before  Ben  could  leave  the  room  there  was  a  noise  of 
hurrying  feet  upon  the  stairs,  the  door  was  flung  open 
with  a  bang,  and  there  stood  Colonel  Ruddiman,  his 
eyes  blazing  with  rage  and  his  face  black  with  dust  and 
smoke. 

"  Oh,  you  infernal  scoundrel !  "  he  shrieked,  "  I  have 
got  you  at  last !  Ravisher  of  women ,  murderer  of  men, 
take  that!  " 

I  was  paralyzed  by  such  a  salutation.  I  had  not 
noticed,  so  astonished  was  I  by  the  look  upon  his  face, 
that  his  hand  held  a  revolver.  But  Ben  saw  it,  and,  as 
the  Colonel  fired,  quick  as  a  flash,  he  flung  himself 
before  me,  and  the  bullet  meant  for  my  heart  entered 
his  body,  and  he  fell  against  me,  with  his  arms  out 
stretched,  shrieking: 

"  Don't  shoot,  massa,  don't  shoot.     Dis  am  de  real 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


305 


Doctor  Huguet  come  back  agin.  De  nigger  am  gone, 
massa.  Don't  shoot!  Don't  shoot!  Dis  am  de  white 
Doctor  Huguet,  for  suah." 

Here  the  blood  poured  in  a  flood  from  his  mouth,  and 
fell  all  over  me  —  the  rich,  red,  royal  blood  of  honesty 
and  love.  His  weight  bore  me  back  against  the  head 
board.  Great,  convulsive  tremors  ran  through  him;  his 
eyes  turned  up  in  his  head;  but  even  in  the  death  agony 
I  could  feel  him  spreading  out  his  arms  to  protect  me. 

"  My  God!  "  I  cried,  "see  what  you  have  done!  You 
have  slain  the  noblest  heart  in  the  world." 

The  Colonel  stood  there,  with  a  pistol  in  his  hand,  a 
deadly,  implacable  look  upon  his  face.  He  raised 
the  revolver  again. 

"  Don't  shoot  !  "  I  cried;  "  I  am  the  real  Doctor 
Huguet." 

Great  heavens  !  I  thought,  am  I  to  die  now,  just  as 
life  and  love  open  before  me  again  ? 

The  Colonel's  dark  face  relented  not.  The  pistol 
slowly  rose  to  the  level  of  my  head,  The  dead  weight 
of  Ben  held  me  down  and  rendered  me  helpless. 

"  Stop,  father,  stop!"  came  a  wild  cry  from  the  door, 
and  Mary  rushed  forward  and  struck  up  the  out 
stretched  arm,  and  the  bullet  entered  the  ceiling. 

"  Father,  are  you  crazy  ?  Would  you  kill  your 
dearest  friend  ?  Read  that  letter  !  " 

And,  handing  him  a  paper,  she  sprang  forward  and 
threw  her  arms  around  my  neck  and  kissed  my  pale 
face.  The  living  and  the  dead  embraced  me. 

"  Shoot  now,  if  you  will,"  she  cried;  "  but  you  must 
kill  me  first." 


306  DOCTOR  HUGUET. 

Doctor  Magruder  and  the  others  entered  the  room 
and  came  forward.  The  Colonel  read  the  letter;  then 
he  dropped  the  pistol,  and  tore  his  hair  with  both 
hands,  and  cried  out,  like  one  distraught  : 

"  My  God  !  What  have  I  done  ?  What  have  I 
tried  to  do  ?  " 

And  then  he  fell  upon  his  knees  and  grasped  the 
hand  of  poor  Ben,  and  cried  : 

"  Doctor  !  For  God's  sake,  be  quick.  Is  there  life 
in  him  ?  Is  there  hope?" 

Doctor  Magruder  stepped  forward  and  took  up  Ben's 
arm.  But  he  shook  his  head,  and  said  softly  : 

"  He  is  dead." 

They  lifted  him  from  off  me,  and  laid  him  out  upon  my 
bed.  Poor,  poor,  dear  friend,  he  had  died  to  save  me! 
And  then  I  remembered  that  "  greater  love  hath  no 
man  than  this:  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his 
friend."  His  face  was  black,  but  his  soul  would  shine 
in  heaven  whiter  than  the  wings  of  angels. 

I  forgot  my  love;  I  forgot  everything  ;  and  I  fell 
upon  him  and  wept  aloud. 

"  My  poor,  poor  friend,"  I  cried,  "  where  thou  art 
buried  I  shall  be,  and  our  dust  shall  mingle  together 
through  all  the  ages.  You  gave  your  life  that  I  might 
live.  You  gave  me  everything  you  had  —  for  life  is 
everything." 

They  lifted  me  up  and  carried  me  to  a  sofa.  I  had 
fainted. 

When  I  returned  to  consciousness  Mary  held  my 
hand  in  hers,  and  the  Colonel,  with  red  eyes,  sat  near 
me.  He,  too,  had  been  weeping. 


DOCTOR  HUGUET.  307 

And  then  they  told  me  the  dreadful  story  of  poor 
Abigail's  fate,  and  all  the  awful  tragedy  of  the  early 
morning  —  that  tale  of  fire  and  blood,  and  ashes,  and 
vengeance. 

And  oh,  I  was  so  weak  and  tired  and  worn,  that 
even  love  and  hope  were  passionless  in  my  heart.  I 
had  gone  through  fearful  ordeals.  I  had  been  the 
plaything  of  Deity. 

Sleep  !  sleep  !     Oh,  if  I  could  only  sleep  ! 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

THE    END. 

"  Last  scene  of  all, 
That  ends  this  strange,  eventful  history." 

— As  You  Like  It,  i.  7. 

A  WEEK  has  passed.  The  dead  are  buried.  The 
wild  passions  of  the  time  have  subsided,  like  the 
moaning  ocean  after  a  great  storm. 

In  another  month  Mary  and  I  are  to  be  married. 
The  world  opens  bright  and  beautiful  before  us.  It  is 
happiness  merely  to  live. 

Have  I  forgotten  the  lessons  I  have  learned  ? 

No;  no;-  they  will  never  depart  from  my  memory. 
My  heart  is  softened  by  the  miseries  I  have  endured 
and  the  scenes  I  have  witnessed.  I  have  walked  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death.  I  understand  now, 
as  I  never  did  before,  the  feelings  of  the  proscribed 
and  wretched. 

Mary  and  I  have  talked  it  over.  It  was  at  the 
graves  of  Abigail  and  Ben,  where  they  sleep,  side  by 
side,  in  the  white  man's  cemetery,  on  the  top  of  a 
breezy  hill,  that  looks  out  far  and  wide  over  the  beauti 
ful  land.  There,  hand  in  hand,  we  agreed  that  I  should 
devote  my  fortune  and  my  life  to  the  up-building  of 
the  negro  race  in  this  great  America — this  grandest 

and  noblest  of  nations.     Mary  enters,  heart  and  soul, 

308 


DOCTOR  HUGUET. 


309 


with  deep  religious  fervor,  into  all  my  plans  and  pur 
poses. 

I  sfiall  erect  school-houses,  I  shall  provide  teachers, 
I  shall  employ  good  men  and  women  to  work  good 
ness  in  the  land.  I  shall  labor  to  enlighten  minds,  to 
enkindle  souls,  to  sweeten  tempers,  and  to  lift  both 
races  out  of  the  slough  of  bigotry  and  intolerance.  I 
shall  preach  mercy  and  good  will  and  peace  on  earth 
to  men,  for  the  great  Gospel  of  Brotherly  Love  is  the 
true  solvent  in  which  must  melt  away  forever  the  hates 
of  races  and  the  contentions  of  castes. 

"  Humanity  moves  onward: 
Where  to-day  the  martyr  stands 
To-morrow  crouches  Judas, 
•With  the  silverin  his  hands. 
Another  cross  stands  ready, 
Another  fagot  burns; 
Hut  the  shouting  mob  of  yesterday 
In  silent  awe  returns, 
To  gather  up  the  a'shcs 
For  History's  cold  urns." 


THE   END. 


C/ESAR'S  COLUMN 

A  Story  of  the  Twentieth  Century. 


BY  EDMUND   BOISGILBERT,  M.  D. 

[IGNATIUS  DONNELLY] 


This  wonderful  book  was  first  issued  in  June,  1890.  The 
name  on  the  title  page  was  Edmund  Boisgilbert,  M.  D.,  and 
it  was  given  out  that  this  was  a  pseudonym.  The  leading 
magazines  and  reviews,  with  one  exception,  and  many  of  the 
great  newspapers  entirely  ignored  the  book,  and  everything  at 
first  \vas  against  its  success,  It  created  the  most  profound  in- 


C/ESAR'S  COLUMN— WHAT  THE  CRITICS  SAY. 

terest,  however,  among  those  who  read  it,  and  soon  became 
talked  about.  JULIAN  HAWTHORNE,  BISHOP  POTTER,  FRAN 
CES  E.  WILLARD  and  others  spoke  highly  of  it,  and  CARDINAL 
GIBBONS  praised  it  as  an  example  of  the  highest  literary  form. 
OPIE  P.  READ  summed  up  its  charm  in  these  words:  "//  will 
thrill  a  careless  reader  of  novels, or  profoundly  impress  a 
statesman.  It  is  gentle  as  a  child  and  yet  it  is  rugged  as  a 
giant."  In  six  months  "Cesar's  Column"  passed  through 
twelve  editions,  and  considerable  guessing  was  done  as  to  the 
real  name  of  the  author,  among  those  prominently  named  be 
ing  Judge  Tourgee,  Mark  Twain,  T.  V.  Powderly,  Robert  G. 
Ingersoll,  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  Benj.  F.  Butler  and  others.  In 
December  it  was  finally  announced  that  Ignatius  Donnelly, 
author  of  "Atlantis,"  "Ragnarok"  and  "The  Great  Crypto 
gram,"  was  also  the  author  of  "  Caesar's  Qjiumn."  Mr.  Don 
nelly  had  escaped  general  suspicion  because  his  previous  writ 
ings  are  more  distinguished  by  laborious  industry  and  wide 
information  than  by  the  qualities  that  go  to  make  the  creator 
of  romances. 

"  In  '  Cesar's  Column '  Mr.  Donnelly  takes  as  his  text  the 
dangerous  tendencies  of  our  age  and  gives  a  picture  of 
what  the  world  will  be  a  hundred  years  from  now,  if  the 
spirit  of  invention  and  material  progress  remains  the  same 
and  the  moral  spirit  of  society  moves  along  in  its  present 
channels.  The  San  Francisco  Chronicle  aptly  says:  In  a 
startlingly  original  and  fascinating  novel  he  presents  a  pro 
found  study  of  sociological  conditions. 


WHAT  THE  CRITICS  SAY. 

"A  Gabriel's  trump." — FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 

"A  very  extraordinary  production."— RT.  REV.  HENRY  C.  POTTER. 

"  The  effect  of  an  honest  purpose  is  felt  in  every  line." — Pioneer  Press. 


C/tSAR'S  COLUMN— WHAT  THE  CRITICS  SAY. 

As  an  example  of  the  highest  literary  form  it  deserves  unstinted 
praise." — CARDINAL  GIBBONS. 

"A  wonderfully  fascinating  book.  It  will  hold  the  attention  of  the 
world  as  no  other  book  has  held  it  for  years." — Chicago  Saturday  Blade. 

" '  Caesar's  Column,'  in  its  vivid  portrayal,  will  lead  many  to  realize 
the  many  dangers  to  which  our  country  is  liable." — HON.  WM.  LARRABEE. 

"  1  was  unable  to  lay  it  down  until  I  had  finished  reading  it.  It 
should  be  read  by  every  farmer  in  the  land." — H.  L.  LOUCKS,  President 
National  Farmers'1  Alliance. 

"  Bellamy  looks  backward  upon  what  is  impossible  as  well  as  im 
probable.  '  C<esar's  Column '  looks  forward  to  what  is  not  only  pos 
sible,  but  probable." — MlLTON  GEORGE. 

"  I  have  read  '  Caesar's  Column '  twice  and  am  convinced  that  it  has 
been  written  in  the  nick  of  time.  *  *  *  1  predict  for  the  book  an 
immense  sale  and  a  world-wide  discussion." — CORINNE  S.  BROWN,  Sec 
retary  Nationalist  Club,  Chicago. 

"  The  story  is  most  interestingly  devisea  and  strongly  told.  It  is  not 
the  -work  of  a  pessimist  or  an  anarchist,  but  rather  of  a  preacher  who 
sees  the  dangers  that  all  thoughtful  men  see  in  our  time,  and,  appreci 
ating  the  importance  to  humanity  of  maintaining  what  is  good  in  ex 
isting  systems,  utters  his  warning  as  a  sacred  duty." — Free  Press. 

"  The  book  points  out  tendencies  which  actually  exist  and  are  in 
need  of  cure.  It  warns  us  with  vehemence  and  force  of  the  necessity 
of  guarding  our  liberties  against  the  encroachments  of  monopoly  and 
plutocracy,  and  of  disarming  corruption  in  government  by  every  device 
that  a  vigilant  ingenuity  can  supply." — GEORGE  GARY  EGGLESTON.  in 
A'ew  York  World. 

'  TJie  most  remarkable  and  thought-provoking  novel  \fa3A.  the  disturbed 
industrial  and  social  conditions  of  the  present  have  produced.  *  *  * 
The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  arrest  attention — to  make  men  think 
wisely  and  act  justly,  and  with  dispatch.  The  write"  holds  it  as  a  sig 
nal  of  danger  before  the  on-coming  train.  Will  the  warning  be 
heeded?" — The  Arena. 

"  The  author  writes  with  tremendous  feeling  and  great  imaginative 
power.  The  picture  gives  in  startling  colors  what  would  be  the  case 
if  many  of  our  business  methods  and  social  tendencies  were  to  move 


C/ESAR'S  COLUMN— WHAT  THE  CRITICS  SAY. 

on  unimpeded  to  their  legitimate  results.  The  book  is  a  plea,  and  a 
striking  one.  Its  plot  is  bold,  its  language  is  forceful,  and  the  great  up 
rising  is  given  with  terrible  vividness." — Public  Opinion. 

"  Intense,  stirring  and  eloquent.  No  Such  book  has  ever  before 
appeared  in  the  annals  of  literature.  Its  story  is  here  and  there  bright 
ened  by  the  sweetness  of  a  pure  love,  but  the  general  tone  is  one  which 
should  make  every  honest  heart  shiver  for  the  future.  77/6'  truth  peers 
out  from  every  page.  No  man  will  read  this  book  without  a  new  sense 
of  duty  and  responsibility  to  his  country." — The  Great  West. 

"  One  of  the  wonderful  features  of  this  wonderful  book  is  that  it 
anticipated  Dr.  Koch's  great  discovery.  It  represents  a  philosopher 
living  a  hundred  years  from  now  as  finding  out  that  all  bacteria  are 
accompanied  by  minute  hostile  forms  of  life  that  prey  upon  them; 
that  these  preserve  the  balance  of  nature,  and  by  destroying  the  other 
bacilli  which  infest  the  animal  world,  prevent  the  utter  destruction  of 
man." — Book  Talk. 

"  It  is  exceedingly  interesting  as  a  narrative  and  is  written  by  a  man 
of  thought,  learning  and  imagination.  I  consider  it  the  best  ii>ork  of 
its  class,  since  Bulwer's  '  Coming  Race.'  I  was  impressed  with  the 
power  of  the  book — the  vividness  and  strength  with  which  the  inci 
dents  of  the  tale  are  described  and  developed.  The  plot  is  absorbing, 
and  yet  nothing  in  it  seems  forced.  The  conception  of  the  '  Column' 
is  as  original  as  its  treatment  is  vigorous.  There  is  no  padding  in  the 
book;  the  events  are  portrayed  tersely  and  clearly.  The  analysis  is 
reasonable  and  sagacious,  and  the  breadth  of  the  author's  mind,  as 
well  as  his  careful  study  of  social  conditions,  is  made  evident  by  his 
treatment  of  the  discussions  put  into  the  mouths  of  his  characters. 
Justice  is  done  to  each  side." — JULIAN  HAWTHORNE. 


ONE  VOLUME,  LARGE  i2mo,  367  PAGES. 


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A  KENTUCKY  COLONEL 

BY  OPIE  P.  READ. 


A  SYMPOSIUM  OF  OPINION. 

THIS  is  pre-eminently  an  American  book  by  an  American 
author.    Book  Talk  says  of  it:    "  In  these    days    of 
endless  foreign  importations  in  the  line  of  literature,  when 
readers    are    constantly    hobnobbing    with    lords,    dukes, 

and  princes  in  English 
novels,  and  characters 
with  unpronounceable 
names  or  undefinable 
morals,  in  Russian, 
French  or  Italian  fiction, 
it  is  an  unmistakable 
relief  to  pick  up  a  book 
like  '  A  Kentucky  Col 
onel.'  " 


HON.  HENRY  C. 
CALDWELL,  who  is  not 
only  one  of  the  greatest 
of  American  lawyers, 
but  one  of  the  best  of 
literary  critics,  says:  "I 
have  never  read  a  Better 

Story.  It  is  the  most  beautifully  written,  the  most  striking  in 
character,  and  upon  the  whole  one  of  the  most  thrilling  and 
yet  chaste  pieces  of  fiction  that  has  been  produced  in  many  a 
day.  It  will  create  a  sensation." 

"  A  novel  of  remarkable  power  and  interest." — Spirit. 

"  A  notable  contribution  to  recent  literature." — Book  Buyer. 


"A  KENTUCKY  COLONEL"— SOME  OPINIONS. 

e"  The  sketches  of  Southern  life  in  this  book  are  exquisite  " — Book 
Chat. 

"The  book  does  not  read  like  a  romance.  It  seems  to  be  a  record 
of  an  actual  experience." — New  York  Herald. 

"  Full  of  action  and  vigor,  with  descriptions  of  scenery  that  are 
always  poetic  and  sometimes  exquisite  in  their  word-painting." — Chi 
cago  Herald. 

"  A  book  the  popularity  of  which  will  not  be  temporary.  It  has 
virility,  tenderness,  striking  character  pictures,  and  the  American 
flavor." — Chicago  Journal. 

"Mr.  Read  is  by  no  means  a  realist,  but  his  characters  come  nearer 
that  ideal  than  the  studied  and  overwrought  efforts  of  Howells  and 
James."— Atchison  Champion. 

"  If  the  author  has  not  actually  known  the  people  he  writes  of  in  his 
romance,  he  makes  one  feel  that  he  must  have  known  them,  and  no 
literary  art  can  do  more."— Louisville  Critic. 

"Mr.  Read's  genius  finds  its  best  examplification  in  this  delightful 
book,  which  equals  in  human  interest  and  surpasses  in  dramatic  finish 
any  of  his  previous  productions." — Chicago  Evening  Post. 

"  In  '  A  Kentucky  Colonel'  I  find  the  best  and  brightest  pictures  of 
Southern  Life.  That  young  fellow  Savely — what  a  type — and  how 
many  of  them  went  down  during  the  war." — ALEX.  E.  SWEET 

"  A  sparkling  gem  among  recent  literature.  The  characters  live  and 
breathe  a  perfect  mirror  of  Kentucky  life,  from  the  backwoods  revivals 
down  to  the  recipe  for  making  a  mint  julep." — Northwestern. 

"  The  book  will  interest,  not  merely  for  its  plot,  but  for  the  bold 
character-drawing.  Mr.  Read  does  nothing  by  inference.  His  figures 
are  solid  and  imposing,  and  as  sturdy  in  action  as  they, are  bold  in  out 
line." — Boston  Globe. 

"  There  is  a  rich  vein  of  true  humor  and  of  healthy  and  vigorous 
sentiment,  and  it  has  a  fresh  and  breezy  atmosphere  which  is  heartily 
welcome  in  view  of  the  hot-house  character  of  much  of  our  fiction. "— 
Philadelphia  Record. 

"The  deepest  thinker  and  the  most  progressive  of  all  the  writers  of 
humor  in  this  country  is  Opie  P.  Read.  *  *  *  His  writings  r»-e 


"A  KENTUCKY  COLONEL"— SOME  OPINIONS. 

fresn,  sparkling,  witty,  agreeable,  and  so  pleasant  that  he  is  of  more 
service  to  humanity  than  are  scores  of  long-faced  teachers  and  preach 
ers." — "BRICK"  POMEROY. 

"  It  is  a  novel  that  bears  on  every  page  the  seal  of  authenticity.  It  is 
realism,  it  is  romance,  it  is  photography,  and  it  is  caricature.  *  *  * 
What  we  most  like  it  for  is  the  sincerity  of  its  coloring.  Of  the  many 
storie^,  short  and  long,  of  Kentucky  life,  it  gives  the  most  realistic 
pictures." — New  York  Independent. 

" '  A  Kentucky  Colonel,'  the  latest  novel  to  have  the  name  of  big- 
bodied,  big-hearted,  genial  Opie  P.  Read  on  its  title-page,  is  having  an 
immense  sale.  It  is  a  powerful  piece  of  fiction  and  the  best  of  his  pro 
ductions  to  date.  It  will  be  read  and  enjoyed  long  after  its  author  haf 
passed  away." — New  York  Journalist. 

" '  A  Kentucky  Colonel '  will  be  read  and  appreciated  by  the  scholar, 
for  as  a  work  of  art  it  is  highly  pleasing;  and  it  will  be  read  and 
appreciated  by  the  people,  for  it  is  pure,  is  pervaded  by  a  moral 
atmosphere  most  refreshingly  wholesome,  and  is  intensely  interesting 
from  beginning  to  end." — Little  Rock  Republican. 

"  One  reads  it  from  first  to  last  with  keen  delight,  and  sighs  when 
the  end  comes.  The  tale  is  so  simply  and  sincerely  told,  the  men  and 
women  who  wander  through  the  pages  are  so  evidently  men  and 
women,  with  so  true  a  tang  of  the  Kentucky  soil,  the  humor  is  so  local 
and  unaffected,  the  pictures  of  nature  so  delightful,  that  the  book  is 
closed  with  the  comfortable  sense  ol  time  well  spent." — Chicago  Inter 
Ocean. 

"  So  beautiful,  so  chaste,  so  full  of  simple,  rugged  honesty  and  pure, 
wholesome  sentiment,  that  no  one  can  read  the  book  without  being 
bettered.  *  *  *  The  book  is  full  of  a  gentle  humor  that  has  just 
enough  tart  in  it  to  make  it  appetizing.  Some  of  the  word-painting  is 
almost  sub!  me,  and  everywhere  there  is  that  broad,  sweet  touch  of 
tenderness  that  is  a  part  of  the  author's  very  self.  *  *  *  There  is 
not  a  Single  dull  line."— /i/ti.  Commercial  Traveler. 

"  A  delightful  novel.  Kentucky  has  been  productive  of  an  enormous 
quantity  of  self-assertive,  self-respecting  humanity,  which  has  been  the 
theme  of  the  floating  humorist  and  paragrapher;  but  unfortunately 
the  type  has  not  heretofore  been  fixed  in  permanent  literature.  'A 
Kentucky  Colonel '  is  an  attempt  to  do  this,  and  it  is  certainly  not  an 
unsuccessful  attempt.  The  simple,  stalwart  honesty  of  the  Kentucky 


"A  KENTUCKY  COLONEL  "—SOME  OPINIONS. 

man,  tne  unaffected  naturalness  of  the  Kentucky  woman,  both  proof 
in  their  honesty  and  naturalness  against  the  inroads  of  artificiality  and 
convention,  are  exhibited  in  a  style  as  honest  and  natural  as  the  sub 
ject.  Mr.  Read  feels  the  force  of  the  Colonel's  remark  when  he 
proudly  speaks  of  his  daughter  as  a  '  Blue  Grass  girl,  suh,  not  afraid  to 
be  natural.' " — St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch. 

"I  don't  think  I  ever  saw  a  more  truthful  portrayal  of  character. 
The  Story  is  new,  strong"  in  every  point ,  and  cannot  liclp  being  a  suc 
cess." — HENRY  CLAY  LUKENS. 

"  Your  '  Kentucky  Colonel '  has  taken  my  household  by  storm.  It  is 
i  delightful  story  admirably  told — a  great  fen  picture  which  I,  as  a 
Kentuckian,  pondered  over  at  times  until  I  had  to  shake  myself  back 
into  every-day  life." — WILL  VISSCHER. 


"A  KENTUCKY  COLONEL"  is  PUBLISHED  IN  ONE  LAR. -,E  12MC  VOL 
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CLOTH  EXTRA,  $1.00 

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AN   INDIANA   MAN 


BY    LE  ROY   ARMSTRONG 


"A  well-told  story  of  a  young  man  who  'entered  polities'  and 
what  came  of  it.  *  *  *  So  true  to  the  real  life  of  modern  politics 
as  to  seem  more  like  real  history  and  biography  than  romance." — Chi 
cago  Inter  Ocean. 

"A  novel  worth  reading.  In  this  work  the  author  has  given  us  a 
touch  of  realism  that  shows  his  appreciation  of  life  as  it  really  is.  Out 
of  the  common  and  everyday  happenings  of  a  country  town  he  has 
constructed  a  story  that  holds  the  reader's  attention  from  beginning  tc 
end." — Chicago  Herald. 

"An  Indiana  man  is  what  he  is,  in  childhood,  in  school,  in  court 
ship  and  in  the  serious  business  of  life,  which  generally  has  more  or 
less  to  do  with  politics.  Mr.  Armstrong's  hero  is  a  politician 'up  to 
date.'  *  *  *  Of  the  intimate  personal  knowledge  of  the  phases  of 
life  described,  of  faultless  discrimination  in  the  choice  of  essential  factr 
and  of  the  power  to  write  them  well,  Mr.  Armstrong  has  proved  him 
self  a  master." — Evening  Post. 

"A  faithful  portrayal  of  local  politics  as  it  exists  to-day  through 
out  the  old  Hoosier  state.  *  *  *  The  description  of  the  old-time 
'spelling  match'  recalls  vividly  our  boyhood  days  and  is  well  worth 
twice  the  cost  of  the  book." — HON.  ORLANDO  M.  PACKARD. 

"  You  have  told  your  story  well,  and  its  purpose  is  to  purify  per 
sonal  living  and  correct  politics.  It  sounds  to  me  as  if  from  life.  No 
man  could  have  a  nobler  or  a  more  needed  motive." — FRANCES  E. 
WILLARD. 


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